Statizoid

Canada vs China: Armed forces personnel as a share of total population

Canada
0.2%
in 2020
China
0.2%
in 2020
Canada rank
130th
China rank
133rd

Armed forces personnel as a share of total population over time

  • Canada
  • China
00.10.20.30.4198520022020

How they compare

Canada currently reports 0.2% against 0.2% in China, a difference of 0.0%.

That makes Canada's figure about 1.1 times China's.

The two have swapped places 3 times across 33 shared years of data; in 1985 it was China ahead.

Canada ranks 130th and China ranks 133rd of 173 countries.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Armed forces personnel as a share of total population
Unit
%
Source
The Military Balance - International Institute for Strategic Studies, via World Bank (2026); Population based on various sources (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
173 places, 5,352 data points, 1985–2020
Last refreshed

Armed forces personnel are active duty military personnel, including paramilitary forces if their training, organization, equipment, and control suggest they may be used to support or replace regular military forces.