Contractor census archive
Data > Contractor census archive
All 68 quarterly US Department of Defense contractor census reports for the Central Command area, FY2008 Q3 to FY2025 Q2, in one checked table: contractor personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the wider region, split into US citizens, third-country nationals and local nationals.
Download the dataset (19 MB, zip, from Zenodo) · Code and documentation
| Source | US Department of Defense |
|---|---|
| Covers | FY2008 Q3 to FY2025 Q2 (68 quarterly reports) |
| Size | 251 rows, one per area per report |
| Format | CSV, with a documentation file and the code that builds it |
| Version | 1.0.0, published 28 October 2026 |
| Licence | CC BY 4.0 (code: MIT) |
| DOI | 10.5281/zenodo.23736050 (all versions) · 10.5281/zenodo.23736051 (this version) |
What it is
For seventeen years the United States Department of Defense counted the contractor personnel working for it in the Central Command area, which covers Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the surrounding region, and recorded whether they were United States citizens, third-country nationals or local nationals. The reports existed only as 68 separate PDF files, and the series has ended: the April 2025 report states that it is the last.
This archive puts every report into one checked table. At the peak, in 2008, about 266,700 contractor personnel were counted; by 2025, about 20,400. It can be used to compare the use of contractors with troop levels over time, to follow how many workers came from third countries, and to check official statements about the size of the United States presence.
What it cannot be used to say
- It counts only contractors on Department of Defense contracts in one command's area. Contractors of other United States agencies are not included, and it is not a count of mercenaries.
- The areas covered change over time. Afghanistan appears until the fourth quarter of the 2021 financial year. Iraq is reported alone until early 2018, then together with Syria. The reports say Israel is included in the totals from the fourth quarter of the 2021 financial year.
- The first two reports have no separate row for other locations, although their totals include them.
- The report for the fourth quarter of the 2010 financial year is a recount: a first count of 194,405 was redone and gave 176,340. The dataset uses the recount, as printed.
- Numbers are kept exactly as printed. Three reports contain tables that do not add up; they are flagged in the file, not corrected.
How it was checked
- Every table was read twice with two different PDF programs, and both readings agree for all 251 rows.
- Every row was checked to add up, and every report's areas were checked against its own total.
- Each total was compared with the figure in the report's own summary text, and each problem found was confirmed against an image of the printed page.
What is in the file
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
report_file | The source PDF in data/raw/ |
fiscal_year, fiscal_quarter | The U.S. fiscal year and quarter the count covers (the fiscal year starts on 1 October) |
published | Month the report was published, from its file name |
area | Standard area name: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iraq and Syria, Other USCENTCOM locations, USCENTCOM AOR total |
label_in_report | The row label exactly as printed, including footnote marks |
total | Total contractor personnel |
us_citizens | U.S. citizens |
third_country_nationals | Citizens of neither the U.S. nor the host country |
local_nationals | Local or host-country nationals |
note | Explanation where the printed numbers have a known problem (see below) |
Cite
Azom, Kazi Affnann (2026). contractor-census: U.S. DoD quarterly contractor census for the USCENTCOM area, FY2008-FY2025 (Version v1.0.0) [Data set]. Mercenomics. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23736051
The DOI above is for version 1.0.0. To always point to the latest version, use 10.5281/zenodo.23736050. Found an error? Report it on the Corrections page.