The number of U.S. military personnel on duty abroad has fallen below 200,000 for the first time in six decades, a study shows.
The decline in active-duty U.S. forces is evident in several countries, including in South Korea and Germany, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of US military data.
The U.S. military presence in Germany peaked at 274,119 in 1962, nearly eight times its level last year. And there were 71,043 personnel stationed in South Korea in 1957, nearly triple the US military presence in 2016.
South Korea is one of America's most strategically important military allies in Asia, which has become a focus of attention amid escalating tensions between the United States and North Korea.
The five countries with the largest active-duty U.S. military presence in 2016 were Japan (38,818), Germany (34,602), South Korea (24,189), Italy (12,088) and Afghanistan (9,023).
The total active-duty U.S. military presence in Afghanistan peaked in 2011 at 82,174.
The size of US forces in the war-ravaged country has slimmed to nearly one-tenth in the last six years. President Donald Trump ruled out an immediate withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan as he unveiled an expansive new strategy for South Asia on Monday.
Pew Research Center said as per information it received from the Defense Manpower Data Center, a statistical arm of the Department of Defense, 15 percent of around 1.3 million U.S. military personnel were deployed overseas in 2016. That's the smallest number of active-duty members overseas since at least 1957, the earliest year with comparable data.
Regionally, Asian countries had the highest share of US troops (38 percent), while around a third were deployed to Europe (32 percent), followed by troops in the Middle East and North Africa (13 percent).
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