While a great deal of noise has been made about the politicization of the military in recent years, people on both sides of the aisle can step back from politics and simply appreciate the bravery put on display by the more than one million active service members in the armed forces. Not only do they put their lives on the line in the pursuit of defending the United States, but they come from all different walks of life, having various ethnic backgrounds, educational history, and unique skill sets.

To provide more context on military diversity, Stacker used data from CNA that provides specific breakdowns of the American armed forces by various demographics. This story focuses on Department of Defense services branches, specifically the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Data was unavailable for the U.S. Coast Guard. For each branch, we've included 2016 statistics about the makeup of their personnel across various categories.

Read on to get a better idea of what the large coalition of brave servicemen and servicewomen protecting our nation actually looks like.

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2016 active duty personnel: 378,835
Percent of total personnel: 35.7%

2016 active duty personnel: 265,716
Percent of total personnel: 25.1%

2016 active duty personnel: 252,762
Percent of total personnel: 23.8%

2016 active duty personnel: 162,828
Percent of total personnel: 15.4%

2016 active duty males: 325,603 (85.9%)
2016 active duty females: 53,232 (14.1%)

2016 active duty males: 215,540 (81.1%)
2016 active duty females: 50,176 (18.9%)

2016 active duty males: 204,476 (80.9%)
2016 active duty females: 48,286 (19.1%)

2016 active duty males: 149,497 (91.8%)
2016 active duty females: 13,331 (8.2%)

2016 active duty members:
White: 65.1%
Black: 24.3%
Asian: 4.5%
Unknown: 4.12%
Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander: 1.2%
American Indian, Alaska Native: 0.8%
Two or more: 0.0%

2016 active duty members:
White: 58.3%
Black: 19.1%
Asian: 5.6%
Unknown: 3.5%
Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander: 1.2%
American Indian, Alaska Native: 3.0%
Two or more: 9.3%