In late 2003, the Department of Defense plan was to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq to 105,000 by May 2004. However, as of November 2006, there were approximately 140,000 troops there. We no longer know what the breakdown is between active and reserve forces (including National Guard). The last time those data were available, there were 90,000 active forces and 60,000 reserve.
In November 2006, coalition troop numbers were down from a high of 25,600 (January 2004) to 18,000. Thus 89 percent of the troops are American.
On 10 January 2006, President Bush announced that he was sending another 21,500 troops to Iraq.
Coalition Country Military Personnel in Iraq As of (date)
- United Kingdom, 7,200, October 17, 2006
- South Korea, 2,800, August 20, 2006
- Australia, 1,400, November 17, 2006
- Georgia, 900, June 29, 2006
- Poland, 900, November 17, 2006
- Romania, 600, November 17, 2006
- Denmark, 470, October 6, 2006
- Italy, 0 ,December 2, 2006
*Number of Total
Coalition Troops is from “Iraq Weekly Status Report,” Department of State, December 20, 2006.
In addition to the United States, 25 countries are contributors to Iraqi Stability Operations as of December 8, 2006:
Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
Fiji is participating as part of the UN mission in Iraq and Hungary, Iceland, Slovenia and Turkey are NATO countries supporting Iraqi stability operations but are not part of MNF-I.
“Iraq Weekly Status Report,” Department of State, December 20, 2006.
Data from the Brookings Institution about reconstruction and security in Post-Saddam Iraq.
Mid 2005 Analysis
Data for mid-June 2005 show that the US accounted for 85.4 percent of coalition troops. The United Kingdom was second, with 5.1 percent. South Korea, Italy and Poland rounded out the top five coalition countries. The remaining 22 coalition countries account for 4.24 percent of coalition forces.
The Air Force has had the highest percentage of reserve troops deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. From Sept 2001 - Jan 2005, 33 percent of all Air Force active duty personnel 47 percent of the national guard and 49 percent of the reserve were in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Numbers for the Army: 37 percent active duty, 30 percent national guard, and 34 percent reserve.
Percentages drop considerably for Marines, Navy and Coast Guard.
What about Iraqi forces? In June 2004, the stated goal for the Iraqi National Guard and the Iraqi Armed Forces was increased from 41,088 and 35,000 (total 76,088) to 61,904 and 36,635 (total 98,539). In June, the combined "operational" total was 75,791, a 23 percent shortfall.
The following table uses data from the Brookings Report and uses June 2005 data. See the data pie chart.
Coalition Troop Data - June 2005
| Country | Population | Troops | % |
| US | 295,734,134 | 135,000 | 85.44 |
| United Kingdom | 60,441,457 | 8,000 | 5.06 |
| South Korea | 48,422,644 | 3,600 | 2.28 |
| Italy | 58,103,033 | 3,000 | 1.90 |
| Poland | 38,635,144 | 1,700 | 1.08 |
| Ukraine | 47,425,336 | 1,650 | 1.04 |
| Georgia | 4,677,401 | 850 | 0.54 |
| Romania | 22,329,977 | 800 | 0.51 |
| Japan | 127,417,244 | 550 | 0.35 |
| Denmark | 5,432,335 | 530 | 0.34 |
| Bulgaria | 7,450,349 | 400 | 0.25 |
| Remaining 17 Countries | NA | 1,920 | 1.22 |