A Comparison of the Militaries of the World's Global Powers, Illustrated in a Handy Chart

Although technological warfare is increasingly becoming a reality, especially now that space warfare has already begun, armed conflicts involving infantry and vehicles remain constant in several areas of the world. These units are responsible for fighting wars, and while technological superiority is something one must consider, so is military power in terms of the number of members.

In this graph created by Visual Capitalist, we can see and compare the armed forces of the 10 countries with the most military personnel. The data is surprising and allows us to see what a war like the one between Russia and Ukraine entails.

Not China or the U.S. When we talk about the size of armies, we might think that a country that invests $916 billion would be at the top of the list. That's the U.S. military budget, but interestingly, although its investment is the largest in the world in gross terms, it doesn’t have the largest army. That “honor” goes to Vietnam, which has between 5.5 million and 5.8 million troops. Second place goes to India, with 5.1 million soldiers, and third place goes to South Korea, with between 3.6 million and 3.8 million troops.

Undoubtedly, China is a military power that has invested heavily in this area in recent decades, which you can see with its 3.2 million soldiers in the chart. Ukraine, with 2.2 million, is close behind. Meanwhile, the U.S. comes in with 2.1 million, followed by North Korea, with two million. However, the numbers are complicated.

Joining forces. The graph shows active personnel, including regular forces, reserve forces, and paramilitary groups. But here’s where the data gets confusing and depends on the source you consult. For example, Visual Capitalist made this graphic based on Global Firepower estimates, but if we look for other sources, we come across the International Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS).

Both sources usually agree in their estimates, but the numbers vary in certain cases like North and South Korea. In the Global Firepower list, they’re ranked third and eighth, but if we consider the IISS data, they’re ranked first and second, with 7.5 million soldiers for North Korea and 6.6 million for South Korea. The reason? They count the 5.7 million members in paramilitar groups for North Korea and three million for South Korea. Otherwise, the two databases are more or less the same.

Wartime. Even so, this is a simple estimate in many cases because it’s complicated to know how many forces a country has from the outside. Some territories are more transparent than others when it comes to reserve members and paramilitary troops. In addition, we must consider whether these countries are in a situation of open conflict.

An example of the difficulty in measuring data is Ukraine. Excluding reservists, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in December that 600,000 troops were fighting on the front lines. A few weeks later, he said there were 880,000 active troops in January. This figure is similar to Global Firepower’s 900,000 active troops. For comparison, in 2016 the country had about 170,000 troops.

Another thing is military expenditures. Apart from the number of soldiers, we also have the budget. There’s no discussion here: The U.S. is the leader in military spending.

2023 was a year of increased military spending, exceeding $2.4 trillion, compared to the previous year’s $2.2 trillion. The U.S. accounted for 37% of global military spending, China for 12%, and Russia for 4.5%. As we mentioned before, spending rises in times of war.

Russia increased its military spending by 24% in 2023, accounting for 5.9% of its GDP. Ukraine increased it by 51%, amounting to 37% of its GDP.

A New Cold War? At the beginning of 2023, analysts commented that military spending was at levels not seen since the end of the Cold War and that Eastern European countries were experiencing a massive increase in military budgets. Some have doubled their spending since 2014, but we see increased military expenditure in other countries. Outside of China, we have Japan, which has significantly increased its military budget in Asia. Some analysts now see that the government is taking over maritime security in a territory where China focuses on Taiwan and other regions.

What is clear is that with the number of active conflicts today and this kind of technological Cold War, the picture in 2025 may not be that different from the ones of recent years.

Image | Visual Capitalist

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