The 30 Largest Militaries in the World

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 15, 5:00PM EDT

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The 30 Largest Militaries in the World — © Epsilon / Getty Images

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in late February, is approaching the half-year mark. It was a conflict that many experts expected to be over in a matter of weeks, if not days. Even for those who are not military experts, a quick end to the conflict seemed a likely outcome when considering the vast difference in military power between the two nations. Russia has close to 1.5 million personnel in its armed forces, according to estimates reported by the World Bank, compared to Ukraine’s 311,000.

Another difference between Russia and Ukraine is in defense spending. While Russian military spending topped $61.7 billion in 2020, Ukraine’s was $5.9 billion. However, in many places, Ukrainian forces have pushed back the Russians. The Ukrainian forces have inflicted serious damage on the invaders and claim to have killed nearly 19,000 Russian soldiers, The Guardian reported on April 8.

Among the reasons given for the Ukrainian forces impressive performance is availability of advanced weapons from NATO countries, the fact that Ukrainians operate in areas they know well that the Russians do not, and the high morale of the defenders. (These are wars in which the most Americans died.)

Military size, based on military personnel, is, therefore, only one measure of how successful any country may be in a conflict. The U.S. spends more on its military than any other country. It also has among the world’s most sophisticated weapons. Still, a huge military has significant advantages in many conflicts. Certainly, the Chinese showed this in the Korean War.

Using armed forces personnel data from the World Bank, 24/7 Wall St. identified the country with the world’s largest militaries. Personnel counts are for 2019 and include active-duty military personnel as well as paramilitary personnel. Only paramilitary personnel whose training, organization, and equipment suggest they could be used alongside — or in lieu of — a more traditional military were included. Their inclusion means that personnel estimates may differ from other published estimates.

We also considered military spending, both in U.S. dollars and as a share of GDP. Though many of the countries with the largest militaries also tend to invest more than average on their armed forces, no country has a larger defense budget than the United States. The U.S. spent $778.2 billion on its military in 2020, triple the amount spent by China, the country with the second largest military budget, and more than 12 times Russia’s spending.

The country with the world’s largest military is India with over 3 million military and paramilitary personnel. India’s military spending in 2020 totaled $72.9 billion. (Find out if India also has the world’s largest navy.)

Click here to see the countries with the largest militaries

30. Bangladesh
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 227,000 (0.3% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $4.6 billion (1.3% of GDP)
>Total population: 164,689,383

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29. Morocco
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 246,000 (2.0% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $4.8 billion (4.3% of GDP)
>Total population: 36,910,558

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28. Saudi Arabia
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 252,000 (1.7% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $57.5 billion (8.4% of GDP)
>Total population: 34,813,867

27. Japan
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 261,000 (0.4% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $49.1 billion (1.0% of GDP)
>Total population: 125,836,021

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26. Syrian Arab Republic
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 269,000 (5.2% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: N/A
>Total population: 17,500,657

25. Afghanistan
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 278,000 (2.7% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $279.6 million (1.4% of GDP)
>Total population: 38,928,341

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24. France
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 304,000 (1.0% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $52.7 billion (2.1% of GDP)
>Total population: 67,391,582

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23. Ukraine
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 311,000 (1.5% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $5.9 billion (4.1% of GDP)
>Total population: 44,134,693

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22. Sri Lanka
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 317,000 (3.7% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $1.6 billion (1.9% of GDP)
>Total population: 21,919,000

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21. Algeria
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 317,000 (2.5% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $9.7 billion (6.7% of GDP)
>Total population: 43,851,043

20. Mexico
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 328,000 (0.6% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $6.1 billion (0.6% of GDP)
>Total population: 128,932,753

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19. Iraq
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 341,000 (3.3% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $7.0 billion (4.1% of GDP)
>Total population: 40,222,503

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18. Italy
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 342,000 (1.3% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $28.9 billion (1.6% of GDP)
>Total population: 59,554,023

17. Venezuela
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 343,000 (3.1% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: N/A
>Total population: 28,435,943

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16. Thailand
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 455,000 (1.2% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $7.3 billion (1.5% of GDP)
>Total population: 69,799,978

15. Colombia
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 481,000 (1.8% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $9.2 billion (3.4% of GDP)
>Total population: 50,882,884

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14. Turkey
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 512,000 (1.5% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $17.7 billion (2.8% of GDP)
>Total population: 84,339,067

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13. Myanmar
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 513,000 (2.2% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $2.4 billion (2.9% of GDP)
>Total population: 54,409,794

12. Vietnam
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 522,000 (0.9% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: N/A
>Total population: 97,338,583

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11. South Korea
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 613,000 (2.1% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $45.7 billion (2.8% of GDP)
>Total population: 51,780,579

10. Iran
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 650,000 (2.4% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $15.8 billion (2.2% of GDP)
>Total population: 83,992,953

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9. Indonesia
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 676,000 (0.5% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $9.4 billion (0.9% of GDP)
>Total population: 273,523,621

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8. Brazil
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 762,000 (0.7% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $19.7 billion (1.4% of GDP)
>Total population: 212,559,409

7. Egypt
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 836,000 (3.0% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $4.5 billion (1.2% of GDP)
>Total population: 102,334,403

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6. Pakistan
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 943,000 (1.3% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $10.4 billion (4.0% of GDP)
>Total population: 220,892,331

5. United States
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 1,388,000 (0.8% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $778.2 billion (3.7% of GDP)
>Total population: 329,484,123

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4. Russian Federation
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 1,454,000 (2.0% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $61.7 billion (4.3% of GDP)
>Total population: 144,104,080

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3. North Korea
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 1,469,000 (8.7% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: N/A
>Total population: 25,778,815

2. China
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 2,535,000 (0.3% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $252.3 billion (1.7% of GDP)
>Total population: 1,410,929,362

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1. India
> Military and paramilitary personnel: 3,045,000 (0.6% of labor force)
> Military spending, 2020: $72.9 billion (2.9% of GDP)
>Total population: 1,380,004,385

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.