- China, India, and the US have the largest active armed forces in the world.
- The International Institute for Strategic Studies compiled data about the world’s militaries.
- The world’s top armies spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense each year.
Using data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ 2026 Military Balance report, Business Insider ranked the top 25 countries by the size of their active armed forces during 2025 and listed their defense budgets that same year.
Militaries can also be a tool of domestic repression. North Korea, for example, is one of the world’s most repressive states, led by a dictator who has repeatedly threatened neighboring South Korea — and it also has one of the world’s largest militaries.
“Numbers have value, but there’s a lot more to military capability,” Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC-based foreign policy and national security think tank, told Business Insider.
IISS, a London-headquartered think tank, counts active armed forces, reservists, and paramilitaries as separate categories in its analysis, showing a fuller picture of each nation’s manpower.
Some countries have significantly more reservists than others — Vietnam has the largest number in the world, estimated at 5 million — but the quality and longevity of their expertise can vary between systems.
“When you look at some countries’ reserve numbers, you’re often looking at people who haven’t trained in 10 or 20 years,” Cancian said. “It gives you a big number, but their military value is questionable.”
Even when accounting for all of a military’s manpower, personnel is only one of the factors that can qualify a nation’s military strength, which also includes equipment and readiness.
There’s also the role of technologies in global warfare, the size and sophistication of air forces and naval fleets, amphibious capabilities for landing assault forces, command-and-control systems, and nuclear forces, all of which shape military power.
Still, comparing global manpower offers insight into how countries prioritize military power.
See how the world’s largest militaries stack up in terms of active troop numbers.
25. Iraq
Active armed forces: 193,000
Defense budget: $12.7 billion
- Morocco
Active armed forces: 196,000
Defense budget: $7.5 billion
- France
Active armed forces: 204,000
Defense budget: $70 billion
- Japan
Active armed forces: 247,000
Defense budget: $58.9 billion
- Saudi Arabia
Active armed forces: 257,000
Defense budget: $72.5 billion
- Sri Lanka
Active armed forces: 260,000
Defense budget: $1.4 billion
- Colombia
Active armed forces: 285,000
Defense budget: $8.3 billion
- Mexico
Active armed forces: 301,000
Defense budget: $11.4 billion
- Eritrea
Active armed forces: 302,000
Defense budget: Not reported
- Turkey
Active armed forces: 355,000
Defense budget: $21.5 billion
- Thailand
Active armed forces: 361,000
Defense budget: $5.8 billion
- Brazil
Active armed forces: 375,000
Defense budget: $24.2 billion
- Indonesia
Active armed forces: 434,000
Defense budget: $15 billion
- Egypt
Active armed forces: 439,000
Defense budget: $2.3 billion
- Vietnam
Active armed forces: 450,000
Defense budget: $8.4 billion
- South Korea
Active armed forces: 450,000
Defense budget: $43.8 billion
- Ethiopia
Active armed forces: 503,000
Defense budget: $484 million
- Iran
Active armed forces: 610,000
Defense budget: $6.1 billion
- Pakistan
Active armed forces: 660,000
Defense budget: $10 billion
- Ukraine
Active armed forces: 677,000
Defense budget: $44.4 billion
- Russia
Active armed forces: 1,264,000
Defense budget: $161.2 billion
- North Korea
Active armed forces: 1,280,000
Defense budget: Not reported
- United States
Active armed forces: 1,340,000
Defense budget: $921 billion
- India
Active armed forces: 1,501,000
Defense budget: $78.3 billion
- China
Active armed forces: 2,035,000
Defense budget: $251.3 billion
Read the original article on Business Insider
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