By the Numbers - June 5, 2017

By the Numbers - June 5, 2017

4 to 1

The ratio of enlisted personnel to officers in the Air Force, according to Population Representation in the Military Services 2015, the latest version of the annual report from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Personnel and Readiness, prepared by CNA. This is the highest ratio of all the Service branches; the Marine Corps has the lowest enlisted/officer ratio, at 8.8 enlisted personnel to every officer.

A few other data points from the report:

· Since the draft was discontinued in 1973, when the U.S. military withdrew from Vietnam, the number of active duty Service members has fallen from roughly 2.2 million to 1.3 million.

· Compared to the other Service branches, Army enlistees are from the poorest households, with 44.4 percent coming from the poorest two-fifths of all households. Enlistees in the Air Force come from the wealthiest homes, relative to the other Services.

· Relative to the civilian labor market, women are underrepresented in the military, comprising just 15.6% of the Active component in FY 2015.

· With 819,062 members in FY 2015, the Reserve component (Army National Guard, U.S. Army Reserve, U.S. Navy Reserve, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve) was 64 percent the size of the Active component.