Coasties frequently compare the size of their service to the New York City Police Force. The Marines think they are a small service, but Coast Guard is only one fifth their size. We usually only see comparisons with Navies in terms of how old our ships are, but how do we stack up in terms of numbers of people?
Would it surprise you to know that with over 42,000 active duty Coast Guardsmen, we have as many, or more people, than the British or French Navies?
The following list is not exhaustive and I can’t guarantee it’s 100% accurate (Wikipedia), but it is representative of the personnel numbers for some significant Navies around the world. As near as possible I’ve only included active duty. In some cases, even when not marked, the figure includes Marines.
U.S. Navy: 330,729
People’s Republic of China : 250,000
Russia: 161,000
India: 56,000
Japan: 46,000
(North) Korean People’s Army Naval Force: 46,000
France: 42,550
Spain: 47,300 including Marines
Republic of Korea (South): 68,000 including 27,000 Marines
Royal Navy: 39,100 including 7,500 Marines
Italy: 35,200
Chile: 25,000
Pakistan: 24,000
Republic of China: 23,000
Argentina: 17,200
Germany 17,000
Australia: 12,500
Netherlands: 10,000
Canada: 9,000
The US Navy is shrinking. We seem to be included in Navy planning more than in the past, but it still seems the services potential as a “naval reserve” frequently goes unrecognized and the potential of relatively modest expenditures to enhance that role are not considered.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
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The Dutch would wish their navy had 10,000 personnel.
Excluding civilian personnel working for the navy, they have 6,597 (81.4%)including marines.
And there are 1,509 (18.6%) unfilled spots in the Dutch navy.
So in total it would (and should) be: 8,106 (100%)
Thanks, All the Western navies seem to have gotten a lot smaller.
Word just came out of Britain that they expect the Royal Navy to be down to 30,000 by 2015. Kind of sad.
I’d be interested to also see the Admirals/1000 ratio of all those services.
Re: Admirals vs 1,000 men. It seems today we many more Admirals than before (1954-1974) or is it just my imagination. If so, with the funding problems we have today, are they really all necessary. I spent a tour at HQ in the early 70s’, it seems that many jobs now filled with admirals were capably run with O-6s’ or o-5s’. I realize the force has grown some but whatever happened to the “Span of Control”.
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The Coast Guard, and its predecessor the Revenue Cutter Service, has always been a bit officer heavy. After all, it is an officer’s service. For example, in 1807 the revenue cutter Thomas Jefferson had two officer and seven men including the cook and steward. However in 1812, the extreme was the revenue cutter James Madison had four officer, a physician, and 75-men but this was an anomaly. It seems the CO of the James Madison decided to use his cutter as a privateer and signed on about 55 more men than allowed. Of course, we know that most of these men spent a year or so in British prison.
The best modern comparison are the ice breakers. Take a look at the number of officers and men on a Wind Class and then compare it to, say, Healy. The number of officers is about the same but the crew is about one-fourth.
Does the Coast Guard need all those admirals? No, of course not but someone will have to change the law to reduce them or Congress does not have to approve them. Secretary Gates is looking reduce the number of generals and admirals in DoD and perhaps when that happens the Coast Guard will do the same. However, don’t hold your breath.
What the concern should be is the level of experience of those admirals. In the British scheme of Red, White, Blue, and Yellow admirals, the Coast Guard’s all fall into the Yellow category because none have sea, or even operational, commands.
I’ve missed you Bill, it’s been a while since we heard form you. It would be interesting to see how the services compare in ratio of officers to enlisted. One good thing is, I think the CG uses proportionately more Warrants then the other services.
Grade creep has been going on for quite a while in all the services. Actually lots of people in the Navy are envious of the command opportunities in the CG. I’m not sure it’s better, but it is definitely different from the Navy where very few commands are below the O-5 level.
Chuck,
Yep, the Navy JOs are usually pretty green with envy. It is not difficult to understand why. The three USN ships I taught on, the JOs were treated like crap. On on LHA the Chief Engineer was a tyrant. He told me that I didn’t belong in the wardroom because I was a civilian and I told him he’d be a lousy CPO anywhere. I saw the the same thing on other ships. They don’t like giving JOs responsibility or many opportunities to fail.
Once while watching the bridge gang of a FFG scurry about while transiting the mouth of the Gulf of Accaba (spelling) they were all worried about the narrowness of the channel. I told the CO I’d take though with a QM, a helmsman and a decent paper chart. There was plenty of room for that gray needle of death. I thought the forty some odd people on the bridge and CIC was a bit excessive.
That’s the difference. The Coast Guard gives JOs plenty of opportunities to fail, but not the senior or mid-level officers. I’d like to see an admiral relieved for cause from time to time. Heck, the Brits shot Admiral Byng on his own quarterdeck. Now there’s a example not used much.
Warrant officers were invented in the RCS because the commissioned officers were tired. First allowed officially in the 1830s their original warrants were as “inspectors of the revenue.” They just morphed into specialties because they were needed and a cheaper way of getting two or one. The warrants also stood deck watches under way. I’ve seen some 1890s Boatswains held master’s tickets and were called captain ashore.
Well, back into my hole. I’ve got a large project working.
I was going to write something about the Brits at the Falklands but they would have lost it had it not been for U. S. support. Read what Bob Scheina wrote. Bob used to be the Coast Guard historian and was the first American historian to interview the Argentine Navy brass about the war.