Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Thursday that the country will cut the number of its troops by 300,000, sending a message of peace. Following is a comparison of the troop numbers of major countries in proportion to their populations.

After a cut of 200,000 troops between 2003 and 2005, China's military is 2.3-million-strong. The People's Liberation Army accounts for 0.17 percent of China's total population of 1.37 billion, with an average of about one soldier in every 588 people.

With 771,000 troops, Russia's military personnel take up 0.53 percent of its population, which means one in every 189 people is in military uniform.

The United States has 1.43 million troops, accounting for 0.44 percent of its total population, 0.27 percentage points higher than China. Proportionally, one in every 227 US citizens is in military service.

Germany and Britain have about 180,000 and 136,000 troops respectively, representing 0.22 percent and 0.21 percent of their respective total populations.