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From the time of its creation in 1983 to the present, the PAP has continuously developed and set up new units. Its total number expanded, but the lack of official data in the press makes it difficult to assess its exact size at present.

According to the authoritative Jane Defense Weekly, at the time of its creation, the PAP was a force of around 500,000 soldiers and officers. By 1989, it had grown to around 610,000 troops and various reports indicate that another 200,000 troops were added between 1989 and 1995. Therefore, at present the whole force should number around 800,000 men. However, computations vary and some researchers reckon that the PAP was close to one million in 1995, others put forward the figure of 1.12 million for the spring of 1995, and still others estimate the total at 1.2 million.

The deployment of the new mobile units and the demobilization of 500,000 PLA soldiers announced by Jiang Zemin at the Fifteenth Party Congress have led military analysts to suspect that the PAP could grow by one or two hundred thousand. As a result, the force could well exceed one million and some reports even predict that the total figure could reach 1.3 million or 1.8 million. The highest figure is given in the Hong Kong monthly Dongxiang (動向) which says that the PAP had 2.2 million troops in 1996, and should be over three million in 2000. However, if one follows yet another report which states that in large municipalities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Urumqi, the PAP members are less numerous than the local Public Security Police, one could assume that the PAP does not exceed one million