How Many People Are in the Coast Guard: Active, Reserve, and Civilian

The U.S. Coast Guard has more than 76,000 total members when you count everyone who wears the uniform or works alongside it. That figure breaks down into roughly 40,700 active-duty military, about 6,200 reservists, around 8,700 civilian employees, and more than 26,000 volunteers in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.¹ So how many people are in the Coast Guard depends on which of those groups you include, and the sections below walk through each one.

Active-Duty Members

Congress authorizes the Coast Guard for an active-duty end strength of 41,426. The service currently has 40,757 active-duty members on board, leaving 669 authorized slots unfilled.²

That makes it by far the smallest of the six armed services. The Army fields roughly 449,000 active-duty soldiers, the Navy about 328,000 sailors, the Air Force around 315,000 airmen, and the Marine Corps approximately 173,000 Marines. Only the Space Force, at about 8,900 guardians, is smaller.³ The Coast Guard is also the only branch housed in the Department of Homeland Security instead of the Department of Defense.⁴

Reservists

The Coast Guard Reserve is authorized at 7,000 members, and about 6,240 reservists are currently serving.² The Personnel Service Center describes the reserve component as the service’s “only dedicated surge force.”⁵ Most reservists serve one weekend a month and two weeks a year, working in maritime safety, security, law enforcement, and natural-resource protection.⁶

Civilian Employees

The service is authorized for 9,962 civilian positions and has 8,739 filled, with 1,223 vacancies.² The FY 2026 budget request nudges the authorized civilian count up to 10,019 positions.⁷ Civilians fill roles in engineering, logistics, information technology, finance, and legal services across the Coast Guard’s mission-support apparatus.

Auxiliary Volunteers

The Coast Guard Auxiliary is an all-volunteer civilian organization that acts as a force multiplier for the service. Its official website puts membership at more than 26,000 volunteers.⁸ Auxiliarists patrol waterways, teach boating safety, stand radio watches, and assist with marine environmental protection and homeland security operations. They are not counted toward the service’s military end strength.⁹

Why the Totals Vary by Source

There is no single official document that publishes a clean total of everyone affiliated with the Coast Guard, because different budget and personnel systems count different groups.

The workforce page on uscg.mil lists about 49,496 “onboard” active-duty military and civilians combined, with reservists and auxiliarists tracked separately.² A 2025 Coast Guard press release refers to “more than 76,000 members” operating the fleet, which roughly matches the sum of the 40,700 active-duty members, 6,200 reservists, 8,700 civilians, and 26,000-plus auxiliarists.¹ The FY 2026 budget justification uses a narrower lens, counting 53,138 total authorized positions (43,119 military and 10,019 civilian), which excludes reserves and volunteer auxiliarists.⁷

Where the Number Is Heading

The Coast Guard has acknowledged that it is “not right-sized for its missions.”¹⁰ A modernization initiative called Force Design 2028, championed by Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday, aims to add at least 15,000 military members by January 1, 2029.¹¹

Training capacity is being built out to match. Training Center Cape May in New Jersey, the service’s sole enlisted boot camp, currently graduates about 5,500 recruits a year. A $400 million renovation, the largest shore-facility expenditure in Coast Guard history, will raise that capacity to 8,000 recruits annually. In March 2026, DHS also purchased the former Birmingham-Southern College campus in Alabama for $126.5 million to stand up a second enlisted training center.¹²

The Recruiting Turnaround Behind the Current Numbers

For several years, the Coast Guard shrank. From fiscal years 2019 through 2023, more enlisted members left than joined. In FY 2023 alone, more than 3,800 enlisted personnel departed while only 3,126 were recruited.¹³ The resulting shortage, estimated at nearly 10 percent of the enlisted force, forced the service to lay up cutters and reduce operations at dozens of shore stations.¹⁴

Recruiting recovered in FY 2024, when the service brought in roughly 4,400 enlisted members, about 1,000 more than it lost.¹⁵ FY 2025 was stronger still: the Coast Guard accessed 5,204 active-duty enlisted members (121 percent of its 4,300 target), 371 new officers (the largest officer class on record), and 777 reservists. The enlisted total was the most since 1991.¹ Even so, as of FY 2024 the service remained roughly 2,600 enlisted members short of its workforce target, a gap the GAO attributed to frequent relocations, demanding work, lower pay relative to the private sector, and limited career advancement.¹³

1
U.S. Coast Guard Newsroom. Coast Guard Exceeds Fiscal Year 2025 Recruiting Goals, Achieves Highest Numbers
2
U.S. Coast Guard. Coast Guard Workforce
3
Statista. U.S. Military Force Numbers by Service Branch and Reserve Component
4
National Academies. U.S. Coast Guard Workforce, Missions, and Organizational Context
5
USCG Deputy Commandant for Mission Support. Reserve Personnel Management
6
Today’s Military. Coast Guard Reserve
7
U.S. Coast Guard. USCG FY2026 Congressional Budget Justification
8
U.S. Coast Guard. U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary
9
Coast Guard Auxiliary. Join the Coast Guard Auxiliary
10
U.S. Coast Guard. Force Design 2028
11
USNI News. Billions in Funding Helps Coast Guard Rapidly Implement Force Design 2028 Modernization Efforts
12
Stars and Stripes. Coast Guard Training Center $400M Renovation
13
U.S. Government Accountability Office. GAO-25-107869 – Coast Guard Retention
14
MyCG. Coast Guard Adjusts Operations Plan to Mitigate 2024 Workforce Shortage
15
U.S. Government Accountability Office. GAO-25-107224 – Coast Guard Recruiting