Approximately how many civilian personnel are employed by the Department of Defense?

• A. 742,000
• B. 826,000
• C. 1.3 million
• D. 1.0 million

Answer: (A)

This question asks how many civilian personnel are employed by the Department of Defense. Approximately 742,000 people make up the DoD civilian workforce, a figure that reflects the wide range of civilian roles that support operations, maintenance, policy, research, procurement, administration, and base support across DoD installations and offices. These civilians perform essential functions behind the scenes that keep programs running and enable military activities to proceed smoothly.

The other options are larger figures that go beyond what is typically cited for DoD civilian employees in official counts, so they don’t align with the standard estimate most commonly used for this measure.