Largest Armies in the World 1820-2022 WW1, WW2

Which countries have the largest military? In this video we compare the size of every country’s military personnel in each year for the period 1820 to 2022. Military personnel are defined as troops under the command of the national government and held ready for combat. Troops in the reserves, colonial troops, irregular forces such as civil defense units, frontier guards, gendarmerie, carabinieri, cossacks and other quasi-military units are not included.
During times of war, a country will increase the spending of its military and the size of its military. This pattern has been seen for centuries. Russo-Japanese War, American Civil War, Russian Civil War, Chinese Civil War, WW1, WW2, Vietnam War - during all of these times, either through additional government allocation or through drafting, the countries at war would increase their military sizes.
Watch on and take an adventure through centuries of history and wars to witness the size and scale of the largest armies in the world from 1820 to today.

Data source: NMC (CINC) .

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russia ukraine war
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[Disorder]

Remember that Army size doesn't necessarily mean Army power and capabilities. In peace time it mostly means that they're mobilizing more troops than others.
Edit: Since a lot of people seem to have misunderstood my comment, and i'm just tired of seeing such replies. Why do you all completely ignore the part when i said "in peace time"? I never claimed that army size doesn't matter in wаr.
🤷‍♂

[alfredthegreat]

Would be interesting to see one based on the % of the population of each country in the army.

[arizonashane]

The best part is when the Russian Empire is replaced by the... Empire of Russia.

[CJ-]

That transition from ‘41 to ‘42.
US: SOMEONE TOUCHED MY BOATS!!!!

[JiggaMan]

That WW1 spike 😳 the whole world went crazy

[kekseze]

Russia when peace: what army? i only have 600k troops
Russia when war: DAMN I NEED TO FORCE 10 MIL CIVILIANS INTO MY ARMY

[bvbdortmund]

My great grandfather was a volunteer in the Bulgarian army in WW1. During that period around 980 thousand man were moblized which is crazy number for such a small country. Almost every man from the age gap 18-50 joined the army. He was later captured during the battle for Dobruja by the Russians and held as war prisoner. After his release he passed away from stomach disease which I cant remember. Love and peace to all nations around the globe war is horrible thing 🩶🌍

[HikoAkdag]

Turkey & Russia only 2 countries that stayed on this list through whole the timeline. Turkey & Russia also the countries that had the most wars with each other.

[nathanc]

You realise how fast an army can expand when you see armies grow 5 to 7 times their size in 2 years, in an era where most nations spent signifucantly more on their armies to start with. You probably could expect a 10 times increase today for most of Europe if they ended up in a serious war.

This makes you think about how ridiculous shit might get real soon if WW3 breaks out.

[tinyrhysherbert]

It would be cool to see one from the 1600’s-1850’s seeing, the massive spikes from the British during the Seven Years War, the Americans showing up during 1775-1783, and Revolutionary and Napoleonic France’s rise and fall from 1789-1815.

[maurya_empire-ev]

Bro gave independence to india in 1945, 2 years earlier 😂

[Nostoc_]

India = 1.4 million active soldiers + 3.5 million reserved soldiers

[riteshshaw]

It's just ridiculous when you think the british with an army strength of around 100k to 200k on an average (excluding British Indian army) was able to rule the Indian subcontinent for over 200years
The British Indian army (which consisted of Indians ) played a key role to help British govern India in the first place

[sarthak.]

The growth of india in every sector after independence is tremendous

[CLSGL]

4:19 the USA chilling next to Japan: “See you in a few years chief”

[lifes]

If anyone's wondering, in the mid 1800s, numerous rebellions and civil wars broke out in the Qing Dynasty like the Taiping and Dzungar rebellions. Hundreds of thousands of imperial troops, conscripts, and militias were called to arms.

[kadenoconnor]

During World War II, a total of about 13.6 million soldiers served in the German Army.

[superchiptunetv]

1:20 russian empire: ⬇️
empire of russia: ⬆️

[oOBoogieOoYT]

United States: ya know what? i'm gonna have 1M+ troops deployed even tho im not at war cuz why not?

[MsIHSI]

The progress of the Turks without leaving among the 15 most crowded armies from the beginning to the end of the video is also a remarkable detail.