I have been wondering what the actual size of Star Fleet during the run of TNG, DS9 and VOY might be in regard to the number of personal in service. Now, I know this has never been mentioned on screen, but I believe there are several clues that give us an indication.
Ships of the Line
From DS9 we get an impression of the total number of combat capable ships in Star Fleet. During the Dominion War we heard of 10 fleets that seemed to represent the main defensive force. In SoA Sisco takes command of the 5th fleet which is comprised of approximately 600 vessels (O’Brien mentions that the opposing Dominion fleet has 1254 ships to which Bashier responds: they outnumber us 2:1). If one multiplies this by 10 you get 6000 ships. If one assumes an average crew of 200, you get 1.2 million personnel.
Support Vessels
This figure does not include support vessels. For every ship at the battlefront there needs to be other ships supplying them with replacements, spare parts and so on. Let’s assume this number is really small like a ratio of 2:1. Let’s also assume these ships have much smaller crews, an average of 50 maybe. This gives us another 600.000 people working for Star Fleet.
Star Bases
In addition, there are at least 700 star bases. This is mentioned in TNG’s The Neutral Zone. Now, star bases vary dramatically in size, from crews in the 10s of thousands to bases that are automated and have no personnel at all. I therefore propose an estimated mean of 1000 crew per base, giving us an additional 700.000 personnel.
Planet Based Facilities
What remains are the people who work at planet based facilities such as the academy, Star Fleet Medical, research institutes, Star Fleet Command etc. I would assume that the bigger members of the Federation will have several of such institutions. In the 24th century the Federation has about 150 members. Let’s assume a third of these are big civilisations like Earth and Vulcan and say each has a handful of star fleet institutions with a personnel mean of 500. This gives us an additional 125.000 people.
In total this adds up to 2.625 million people in active service at the end of the 24th century.
The size of Star Fleet Academy
Does this number hold up? If one takes a closer look at Star Fleet Academy one has to wonder. The academy in San Francisco is the only training facility for Star Fleet officers that is ever mentioned on screen and most main characters of each show, regardless of their origin, seemed to have gone there. If one assumes that the academy is similar in size to a big University (40000 students) one gets a graduate turnout of no more then 10000 a year. If the average service length is 50-60 years (people get a lot older) you end up with about 500.000 officers in service. Thanks to the character of Miles O’Brien we know there are non-coms in Star Fleet, although they seem to be fewer then the amount of officers, but for arguments sake lets say the ratio is 1:1. This gives us no more than 1 million people for Star Fleet to draw on. It might be reasonable to believe that Star Fleet Academy operates additional campuses on other Federation worlds but this has never been indicated. Also keep in mind that on screen the academy did not look big enough to support 40000 students. The size of the facility seemed more suited for 4000 students.
Now, most of the numbers given here are no more then educated guesswork. I would be interested to hear what you think of these estimates and if there is evidence to suggest that Star Fleet might be a lot smaller or maybe even bigger.
Comparison with today
At this point, it is interesting to consider the fact that the US military today has a strength of about 1.3 million active personnel, which comes down to about 0.4% of the population of the USA. This percentage is not uncommon for Western countries and similar to that of France, Britain, Germany etc. If such a number were applied to the Federation with a population of several 100 billion one would think that Star Fleet would have several 100 million personnel, which is clearly not the case
Therefore, is Star Fleet, with a population ratio of something like 0.00x%, a highly marginal organisation? Just think about how much attention would we be paying to the military if only 1 guy in 100.000 were a soldier. Today, numbers like this would mean the US Army, Air Force and Navy together would have to make do with less than 3000 people. This is less than the armed forces of Fiji!
I realise these comparisons are somewhat flawed and irrelevant to the storylines of the show but it’s still interesting to get an understanding of what Star Fleet actually means in practical terms.
Ships of the Line
From DS9 we get an impression of the total number of combat capable ships in Star Fleet. During the Dominion War we heard of 10 fleets that seemed to represent the main defensive force. In SoA Sisco takes command of the 5th fleet which is comprised of approximately 600 vessels (O’Brien mentions that the opposing Dominion fleet has 1254 ships to which Bashier responds: they outnumber us 2:1). If one multiplies this by 10 you get 6000 ships. If one assumes an average crew of 200, you get 1.2 million personnel.
Support Vessels
This figure does not include support vessels. For every ship at the battlefront there needs to be other ships supplying them with replacements, spare parts and so on. Let’s assume this number is really small like a ratio of 2:1. Let’s also assume these ships have much smaller crews, an average of 50 maybe. This gives us another 600.000 people working for Star Fleet.
Star Bases
In addition, there are at least 700 star bases. This is mentioned in TNG’s The Neutral Zone. Now, star bases vary dramatically in size, from crews in the 10s of thousands to bases that are automated and have no personnel at all. I therefore propose an estimated mean of 1000 crew per base, giving us an additional 700.000 personnel.
Planet Based Facilities
What remains are the people who work at planet based facilities such as the academy, Star Fleet Medical, research institutes, Star Fleet Command etc. I would assume that the bigger members of the Federation will have several of such institutions. In the 24th century the Federation has about 150 members. Let’s assume a third of these are big civilisations like Earth and Vulcan and say each has a handful of star fleet institutions with a personnel mean of 500. This gives us an additional 125.000 people.
In total this adds up to 2.625 million people in active service at the end of the 24th century.
The size of Star Fleet Academy
Does this number hold up? If one takes a closer look at Star Fleet Academy one has to wonder. The academy in San Francisco is the only training facility for Star Fleet officers that is ever mentioned on screen and most main characters of each show, regardless of their origin, seemed to have gone there. If one assumes that the academy is similar in size to a big University (40000 students) one gets a graduate turnout of no more then 10000 a year. If the average service length is 50-60 years (people get a lot older) you end up with about 500.000 officers in service. Thanks to the character of Miles O’Brien we know there are non-coms in Star Fleet, although they seem to be fewer then the amount of officers, but for arguments sake lets say the ratio is 1:1. This gives us no more than 1 million people for Star Fleet to draw on. It might be reasonable to believe that Star Fleet Academy operates additional campuses on other Federation worlds but this has never been indicated. Also keep in mind that on screen the academy did not look big enough to support 40000 students. The size of the facility seemed more suited for 4000 students.
Now, most of the numbers given here are no more then educated guesswork. I would be interested to hear what you think of these estimates and if there is evidence to suggest that Star Fleet might be a lot smaller or maybe even bigger.
Comparison with today
At this point, it is interesting to consider the fact that the US military today has a strength of about 1.3 million active personnel, which comes down to about 0.4% of the population of the USA. This percentage is not uncommon for Western countries and similar to that of France, Britain, Germany etc. If such a number were applied to the Federation with a population of several 100 billion one would think that Star Fleet would have several 100 million personnel, which is clearly not the case
Therefore, is Star Fleet, with a population ratio of something like 0.00x%, a highly marginal organisation? Just think about how much attention would we be paying to the military if only 1 guy in 100.000 were a soldier. Today, numbers like this would mean the US Army, Air Force and Navy together would have to make do with less than 3000 people. This is less than the armed forces of Fiji!
I realise these comparisons are somewhat flawed and irrelevant to the storylines of the show but it’s still interesting to get an understanding of what Star Fleet actually means in practical terms.
