Percentage of Mercs in IS

[Crow]

Since I've played Clan almost from the inception, I never paid much attention to the IS, let alone Mercs. Once I finally got to reading all of the source material, I realized "holy hell, I never realized there were so many Merc units in canon"

So... roughly how many merc units are there for each house unit? Can anyone hazard a guess?

My question can could be read one of two ways:
-What are the percentage of forces employed by a House which are Mercs?
-(or) What percentage of forces in the IS (employed or not) which are Mercs?

-Assume 1 Merc Battalion/Regiment = 1 House Battalion/Regiment
-Time period? Idk, whenever you like

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Well in 3025 the Kurita and Davion House Armies were about 80 to 110 Regiments in size.  But take away mercs, and they were about equal in size around 65 regiments each...

The % of House Armies comprised by big merc forces slip downwards ever since the 3rd SW, though.

However the big merc outfits are the outliers- the bulk of the merc trade has always been the lance-company sized forces that never got a mention in canon.  Their impact is harder to quantify given their lack of spotlight time.