How Many Jedi Were There Before Order 66
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Order 66, aka Clone Protocol 66, was the order given by Darth Sidious at the end of Revenge of the Sith that caused the clone army to turn on their Jedi leaders. Thousands of Jedi were killed and the few that remained were forced to go into hiding as enemies of the state. This raises the question of just how many Jedi there were before they were mostly wiped out.
Unfortunately, exact numbers are hard to come by. There is frequent talk of “thousands” of Jedi. Sometimes that’s presented as a large number and other times as a small number. The closest to an actual number we ever get is from Kanan Jarrus in the Rebels episode “Path of the Jedi”. He says to his Padawan, Ezra, “When I was your age, there were around 10,000 Jedi Knights defending the galaxy.” That would have been during the Clone Wars, just before Order 66 was issued.
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That number makes a lot of sense when put in the context of the shows and movies. 10,000 is a big number. Not every Jedi knew every other Jedi. There was a lot of diversity throughout the Jedi ranks. But at the same time, 10,000 is a tiny fraction of the total number of people in the thousands of systems in the Galactic Republic. That’s why Mace Windu says in Attack of the Clones, “There aren’t enough Jedi to protect the Republic. We are keepers of the peace, not soldiers.”
Before the prequel era, it seems that the number of Jedi ebbed and flowed. The Jedi lost many members during the wars of the Old Republic, such as the Great Sith War. They peaked during the days of the High Republic. Sadly, we don’t know how many Jedi there were in those eras, though.
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By the end of the Sequels, there’s no telling how many Jedi are left, but it’s not many. The upside is that force-sensitive children are being born all the time. If Rey and any other survivors can find them and train them, maybe the galaxy will return to that 10,000 number that was around before Order 66.
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