California has 72 military installations: 9.4% of the US total of 767. That ranks #1 by count and #36 per person (0.18 per 100,000 residents) of 51.
Source: DoD Military Installations, Ranges and Training Areas (MIRTA), via the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2026. Each active installation at the centre of its boundary. Large ranges are one dot each. Sites the DoD doesn’t publish are not here.
Licence: U.S. government data: no copyright, free to reuse
Local blogs, news sites, parks pages: embed the live interactive map with one snippet. Attribution stays on, that's the whole deal.
<iframe src="https://get-instamaps.com/embed/rankings/military-bases/california" width="100%" height="440" style="border:2px solid #111" loading="lazy" title="California military installations map — InstaMaps"></iframe>Fort Hunter Liggett · Military Ocean Terminal Concord · NG ITC Camp San Luis Obisbo · Camp Roberts · Fort Irwin · Parks Reserve Forces Tng Area · Presidio of Monterey · Sierra Army Depot · NG Los Alamitos JFTB · USMCB Camp Pendleton · Los Angeles Air Force Base · Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms
"California has 72 military installations, #1 in the US by count and #36 per person (DoD Military Installations, Ranges and Training Areas, 2026, mapped by InstaMaps)." Free to quote with a link to this page. Population: US Census 2024 estimates.