30 Countries With Largest Active Military Reserve

::chuckle:: prove it, friend. And I'll admit to it. I clearly demonstrated yours. Anyway, Switzerland is #38 so... pretty high up the list considering they are such a small nation with a small population and a policy of neutrality when it comes to war. Australia is #49. Australia's active military reserve of under 30,000 men actually places them 5th from last, excluding countries that have no reserve at all. But, I think that makes sense, given Australia's relatively small population and the low odds of either a) an invasion or b) the need to rapidly mobilize some military force above and beyond their regular army. If you look at all the rest of the countries on the list they all have a high chance of either a or b- either having hostile and well armed neighbors or being involved in international politics in a military capacity. Australia's relatively peaceful/unentangled foreign policy and geographic isolation make a large reserve unnecessary.

Thanks for taking the quiz! :D and for commenting, as well.

Active military reserve are civilians who have some training with the military and usually do some exercises on weekends here and there... they are no classified as active duty, they are not stationed anywhere or doing tours... they are only there to be called up in the case of the country being engaged in total war... like in the case of North Korea... the have 1.1 million active military personnel (which is huge). These are the men and women who are in uniforms every day when they go to work, they march in parades and go on maneuvers regularly and patrol the DMZ with South Korea. But then if the country was ever invaded by South Korea or the USA or China... then that force would could be supplemented with 8 million reservists. These people would be called up by the North Korean military to join the 1.1 million regulars. The same could happen if North Korea decided to invade South Korea- it would need all the manpower it could get.

just google "military reserve force" and you'll find a wikipedia page about this. Or look up the US Army Reserve if you want to find the page on the American equivalent.

Some countries also have "inactive reserve"... these are military personnel that have retired, or been discharged from the service or moved to the private sector, or else just have their names on file with the military for some reason and have at the past received some nominal level of training but are not at the top of any list to be called on. The USA calls their an "individual ready reserve." Iran's is huge. But again, they would only be called up in the case of a dire emergency. And then only if the active reserve force was insufficient.

If you want to know why Finland has a large military reserve just turn on the news and see what's happening in Ukraine right now.

Both countries have pretty competent and sophisticated armed services, but their reserves are not very large I think because of the reasons I gave above, being a) invasion is unlikely (neither have hostile well-armed neighbors, and the UK is surrounded by water), and b) there's not much need to rapidly mobilize a large fighting force above and beyond their regular army. Both countries are involved in foreign policy and UN police actions etc, but their regular armies are adequate for their level of involvement.

I think I got this from GFP but haven't updated it in two years.

North Korea used to have a reserve of over 8 million.

These are military reserves not the same as standing military. A standing military would be active military personnel. There's another quiz on that subject.