WASHINGTON — The United States military is confronting a historic recruiting crisis, with the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act revealing a projected active-duty troop strength of 1,284,500 for fiscal year 2024. This figure represents a near 64,000 troop decrease over the last three years, marking the smallest U.S. military size since before World War II.
The U.S. military’s current active-duty personnel levels are the lowest since 1940, when the total strength was 458,365 across the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The onset of World War II saw a significant increase in military personnel, reaching 1,801,101 by 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The military’s size expanded drastically during the war, peaking at over 12.2 million active-duty personnel in 1945. Following World War II, the military downsized, but saw increases during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In 1968, during the Vietnam War, the military’s size peaked again at over 3.5 million personnel.
After transitioning to an all-volunteer force in 1973, the military’s size stabilized in the low 2 million range until the early 1990s. The trend of decreasing personnel continued through the 1990s, reaching a low of 1.38 million in 2000. Despite these fluctuations, effective recruiting efforts kept the military’s size above pre-World War II levels until now.
For fiscal year 2024, all military services, except the Space Force, failed to meet their recruiting goals, falling short by a combined total of 41,000 personnel. This recruitment shortfall occurs against a backdrop of global instability, with ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and rising tensions in Asia.
The Department of Defense notes that merely 23% of those aged 17 to 24 meet the qualifications for enlistment because of obesity among young people, with an even smaller number showing interest in joining.
The declining number of active-duty personnel and challenges in recruiting Generation Z, especially amid rising obesity rates among young Americans, are pressing concerns for the U.S. military as it seeks to maintain operational readiness and strength in a rapidly changing global security landscape.
