Statizoid

Japan vs Syria: Armed forces personnel

Japan
261,000
in 2020
Syria
269,000
in 2020
Japan rank
27th
Syria rank
26th

Armed forces personnel over time

  • Japan
  • Syria
200.0k300.0k400.0k500.0k198520022020

How they compare

Syria currently reports 269,000 against 261,000 in Japan, a difference of 8,000.

The two have swapped places 4 times across 33 shared years of data; in 1985 it was Syria ahead.

Japan ranks 27th and Syria ranks 26th of 173 countries.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Armed forces personnel
Source
The Military Balance - International Institute for Strategic Studies, via World Bank (2026) – processed 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.