Comparing Army Data to Population

During our Iran simulation, we looked at a chart displaying a list of countries by number of active troops. I remember thinking, "Woah, China has 2,255,000 active troops! That's almost twice as many as the USA has!" However, when I read the data more closely I realized that China's population of 1,338,156,900 must be taken into consideration. The USA's population is 306,394,000. I found out these populations statistics using another chart displaying a list of countries by population. I believe that one cannot look at the first chart alone, they have to take the population data given by the second chart into consideration. Initally, readers like me will think China is crazy for having so many troops, but once they see it in proportion to the entire population, the number is not so massive. Comparing these two charts, I found out another very interesting fact. India's population is 1,163,060,000, significantly bigger than the USA's 306,394,000. However, the USA has more troops than India! I found this statistic to be quite interesting, and revealed that the USA is more engaged in war than India is. The US Army also engages in more recruiting than the Indian Army. Data can be a very useful visual argument, but it is important to consider factors influencing the data, like population.