As of June 2024, there are 16,751 members of the National Guard and reservists located in Washington state, according to the Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). The National Guard represents a unique facet of the American military. Why? It serves under both state and federal powers, and has the ability to respond to crises both nationally and overseas. In the United States, the National Guard might be dispatched to assist with natural disasters, to protect against enemies, or to ensure public order in situations like riots. Many citizens fear that the Trump administration could leverage the National Guard against protestors or to enforce hardline immigration policies. To combat this, Washington state politicians recently introduced House Bill 1321. Introduced by Rep. Sharlett Mena (D-Tacoma), HB 1321 would prevent other states from deploying their National Guard troops in Washington to support Trump or federal laws that the Washington legislature does not agree with. While the bill passed in the state House, it must now come before the Senate. (Thousands of new immigrants are settling in this Democrat-leaning state.)
Outside of the National Guard, numerous other military personnel are stationed in Washington. The DMDC data shows that, between active duty military personnel, the National Guard and reservists, and federal civilian employees for the Department of Defense, there is a total of 105,924 military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) civilian personnel located in the state. While we tend to think of Washington, D.C., North Carolina, California, or Texas as hot spots for military activity and training, Washington state actually far outranks several states across the country. Today, 24/7 Wall St. set out to learn which areas of Washington state had the highest presence of Department of Defense personnel. To do so, we used the above DMDC data. We also looked at military installation data, as well as a “Defense Spending by State” Executive Summary for fiscal year 2023 by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. While a full report was meant to be published in Q4 of 2024, this report is no longer available from the OLDCC. Therefore, we chose to use the original estimates with an acknowledgement that the final number might have varied slightly. We did not include any counties on this list that did not disclose military personnel.
Active Duty and National Guard: Personnel Breakdown
DMDC data from Washington state in 2023 shows the breakdown of military personnel in the state. While we’ll specify for each branch, the total amount of active-duty military personnel is 56,519 people. For the National Guard/Reserve, Washington has a total of 16,751 members. This breakdown includes:
- Active duty Army: 25,955
- Active duty Navy: 21,654
- Active duty Marines: 723
- Active duty Air Force: 6,589
- Active duty Space Force: 2
- Active duty Coast Guard: 1,596
- Army National Guard: 5,482
- Army Reserve: 4,715
- Navy Reserve: 2,204
- Marine Corps Reserve: 547
- Air National Guard: 1,977
- Coast Guard Reserve: 240
Civilian Employee Breakdown
Washington state also has a total of 32,654 civilian personnel, including:
- Army: 6,048
- Navy: 20,683
- Marine Corps: 8
- Air Force: 1,408
- 4th Estate (DoD): 4,507
Why We’re Covering This Now
A significant share of the Pentagon’s budget goes towards paying the millions of Americans who work for our national defense. In fiscal 2023, the Department of Defense spent over $167.4 billion on employee salaries and wages. Active duty military accounted for 46% of personnel pay, followed by civilians (41%), National Guard (8%), and Reserves (6%). While this money is spread across the 50 states, it has an outsized impact in places that have emerged as hubs for U.S. military operations.
Washington state was ranked at 7th out of the top 10 states by defense personnel spending, with $7.7 billion spent. While the newly introduced legislation does not directly affect spending on Washington state personnel, introducing other states’ National Guard personnel into Washington could mean reduced roles — and reduced spending — for the Washington DoD. As such, Washington state is doing its best to ensure that its personnel receive the funds and pay they need.
Here are the counties with the highest amount of DoD personnel in Washington state:
8. Clark County
- Total Defense Department personnel: 637 (0.6% of DOD personnel statewide)
- Active-duty personnel: 21 (0.0% of active-duty personnel statewide)
- National Guard personnel: 112 (1.5% of National Guard personnel statewide)
- Reservist personnel: 409 (4.6% of reservist personnel statewide)
- Civilian DOD personnel: 95 (0.3% of civilian personnel statewide)
- Total Defense Department payroll: $21,732,035 (0.3% of DOD payroll statewide)
7. Yakima County
- Total Defense Department personnel: 1,021 (1.0% of DOD personnel statewide)
- Active-duty personnel: 97 (0.2% of active-duty personnel statewide)
- National Guard personnel: 453 (5.9% of National Guard personnel statewide)
- Reservist personnel: 201 (2.3% of reservist personnel statewide)
- Civilian DOD personnel: 270 (0.8% of civilian personnel statewide)
- Total Defense Department payroll: $37,981,062 (0.5% of DOD payroll statewide)
6. King County
- Total Defense Department personnel: 2,315 (2.2% of DOD personnel statewide)
- Active-duty personnel: 418 (0.7% of active-duty personnel statewide)
- National Guard personnel: 929 (12.0% of National Guard personnel statewide)
- Reservist personnel: 57 (0.6% of reservist personnel statewide)
- Civilian DOD personnel: 911 (2.8% of civilian personnel statewide)
- Total Defense Department payroll: $153,099,732 (2.0% of DOD payroll statewide)
5. Snohomish County
- Total Defense Department personnel: 2,871 (2.7% of DOD personnel statewide)
- Active-duty personnel: 733 (1.3% of active-duty personnel statewide)
- National Guard personnel: 324 (4.2% of National Guard personnel statewide)
- Reservist personnel: 1,125 (12.6% of reservist personnel statewide)
- Civilian DOD personnel: 689 (2.2% of civilian personnel statewide)
- Total Defense Department payroll: $171,513,252 (2.2% of DOD payroll statewide)
4. Spokane County
- Total Defense Department personnel: 6,509 (6.2% of DOD personnel statewide)
- Active-duty personnel: 3,479 (6.2% of active-duty personnel statewide)
- National Guard personnel: 1,553 (20.1% of National Guard personnel statewide)
- Reservist personnel: 553 (6.2% of reservist personnel statewide)
- Civilian DOD personnel: 924 (2.9% of civilian personnel statewide)
- Total Defense Department payroll: $375,413,870 (4.9% of DOD payroll statewide)
3. Island County
- Total Defense Department personnel: 8,505 (8.1% of DOD personnel statewide)
- Active-duty personnel: 7,010 (12.4% of active-duty personnel statewide)
- National Guard personnel: 0 (0% of National Guard personnel statewide)
- Reservist personnel: 683 (7.7% of reservist personnel statewide)
- Civilian DOD personnel: 812 (2.5% of civilian personnel statewide)
- Total Defense Department payroll: $630,382,589 (8.2% of DOD payroll statewide)
2. Kitsap County
- Total Defense Department personnel: 25,167 (24.0% of DOD personnel statewide)
- Active-duty personnel: 4,475 (7.9% of active-duty personnel statewide)
- National Guard personnel: 150 (1.9% of National Guard personnel statewide)
- Reservist personnel: 845 (9.5% of reservist personnel statewide)
- Civilian DOD personnel: 19,697 (61.5% of civilian personnel statewide)
- Total Defense Department payroll: $2,207,598,118 (28.8% of DOD payroll statewide)
1. Pierce County
- Total Defense Department personnel: 43,891 (41.8% of DOD personnel statewide)
- Active-duty personnel: 29,129 (51.7% of active-duty personnel statewide)
- National Guard personnel: 2,977 (38.6% of National Guard personnel statewide)
- Reservist personnel: 4,999 (56.2% of reservist personnel statewide)
- Civilian DOD personnel: 6,786 (21.2% of civilian personnel statewide)
- Total Defense Department payroll: $3,086,271,011 (40.3% of DOD payroll statewide)
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