Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After the US and China, India is the third largest army spender in the world. Its defense ministry is, however, the largest employer globally—it has nearly 2.92 million personnel, including combined active service personnel, reservists, and civilian staff.
Next to the Indian defense ministry is its American counterpart, the US Department of Defense, which employs 2.91 million people, according to the Statista infographic on employers with the largest workforces worldwide in 2022.
Statista is a Germany-based private organization that provides data and statistics about various issues worldwide.
“At the top of the ranking for the world’s largest employers is India’s Ministry of Defence. Combining active service personnel, reservists, and civilian staff, the total headcount comes to 2.92 million, a touch ahead of the United States equivalent, the Department of Defense.”
In China, the People’s Liberation Army, which doesn’t include civilian positions, employs around 2.5 million people, the Hamburg-based firm specializing in market and consumer data said.
“The Chinese equivalent of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Central Military Commission, may have as many as 6.8 million people in its employment, though that figure was not deemed sufficiently reliable to be included in this list,” the report added.
No company in the world has more employees than Walmart. “The latest information from the US retail giant put the figure at a massive 2.3 million. Not even the behemoth that is Amazon comes close, despite being in second place with a 1.6 million-strong workforce.”
This latest Statista report, which came amid the Russia-Ukraine war, is rather unsurprising as the total global military expenditure reached USD 2113 billion in 2021.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the five largest defense spenders in 2021 were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Russia, together accounting for 62 percent of expenditure.
US military spending amounted to USD 801 billion in 2021, while China, the world’s second-largest spender, allocated nearly USD 293 billion to its military.
India’s military spending of USD 76.6 billion ranked third highest in the world.