A question about military manpower vs population

[El_Phil]

Starhawk said:
Universe: Star Wars
Nation: Galactic Empire size (a thousand thousand worlds)

Simple Answer: Rule by Fear. That and most ships are tied down as garrison fleets to stop anything from even starting to happen so the actual available fleet is fairly small. Hence why the Rebellion manages to do anything, they're massively outnumbered but only on paper. If the GE ever gathered its fleet to crush the Rebels they'd risk rebellion in most sectors.

Universe 2: Honor Harrington
Nation: Star Kingdom of Manticore (Size 3 planets+ several small outposts)

Uhhh. Because Honor once said so, hence the universe warped itself so that she'd be right. I admit that confuses me. Perhaps half the population is frightened of space?

Universe 3: Star Trek
Nation: UFP (size 150 planets)

Because continuity is a very dirty word in ST. If there is ever any agreement between adjacent episodes you should count that as a rare blessing. One writer thought that massive casulaties would emphasise one point without ever thinking of the actual consequences.

But if you think TNG had a tiny fleet take Kirk's day with only 12 Constitution class! Still they were the 'Uber Connie 'o' Doom' TM capable of traveling further and faster and with bigger weapons and shields than anything in Trek before or since.

Universe 4: Andromeda
Nation: All Systems Commonwealth (Size 1,500,000 worlds)

Uber tough ships that are very fast maybe? The ships did look quite pricey so building a new one wasn't something you do lightly. Someone who knows more should probably answer

Universe 5: Warhammer 40k
Nation: Imperium of Man (1,000,000 worlds)

WH40K is skewed by its obscenely Gothic nature, rest assured it can only be a matter of time till it turns out the Emperor is agent of Chaos, the Space Wolves rebel or something equally depressing. OK maybe a bit too far. Anyway the tag line ~ish 'In the future there is only war!' should be a clue. There is no real other career choice as far as I can see, your in the Imperial Guard, Planetary defence force, Fleet, making weapons in some way or mining. There's nothing else as far as I can tell.

Universe 6: Icaran Universe
Nation: Icaran Star Empire (Size 358 planets)

The actual percentage is tiny, it's a lot of people to be sure, but it's not a society geared up for war. Maybe industrially as churning out SDs etc takes alot of resources and maintenance just as much. But actual human population, well 0.005% says it all. For the UK at the moment say 190,000 total in the armed force (accoring to the MoD) out of 60 Million. Thats what 0.3% in peace time and after almost a decade of constant cuts (let's be honest here an increase in the budget less than inflation is a cut)

So if anything Icaran society is very unmillitary, people outside of the shipyard/fleet base planets could probably go years without even seeing any evidence of the millitary.

[Starhawk]

Universe 6: Icaran Universe
Nation: Icaran Star Empire (Size 358 planets)

The actual percentage is tiny, it's a lot of people to be sure, but it's not a society geared up for war. Maybe industrially as churning out SDs etc takes alot of resources and maintenance just as much. But actual human population, well 0.005% says it all. For the UK at the moment say 190,000 total in the armed force (accoring to the MoD) out of 60 Million. Thats what 0.3% in peace time and after almost a decade of constant cuts (let's be honest here an increase in the budget less than inflation is a cut)

So if anything Icaran society is very unmillitary, people outside of the shipyard/fleet base planets could probably go years without even seeing any evidence of the millitary.

[/quote]

Yeah I suppose you are right about that I mean granted in the Icaran Empire there are whole worlds that are devoted solely to the production of weapons for the Empire but for the most part the average citizen would only see the signs of the military in Planetary Defense Forces (which are not "regular" military) or if a division of warships dropped by.

You actually gave me a great idea El_Phil I should point out how for the most part most worlds in the Empire go decades without seeing any signs of the Royal Military beyond what they see in the news.