Compare / China vs South Korea
China vs South Korea
China ranks #2 and South Korea ranks #6 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. China spends $336B on defense with 2.04M active personnel; South Korea spends $47.8B with 450K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #2 | Global Rank | #6 |
| $336B | Defense Budget | $47.8B |
| 1.7% | Budget % of GDP | 2.6% |
| $19.50T | GDP | $1.87T |
| 1.41B | Population | 51.68M |
| Personnel | ||
| 2.04M | Active Personnel | 450K |
| 510K | Reserve Personnel | 3.10M |
| 500K | Paramilitary | 14K |
| Air | ||
| 5,316 | Military Aircraft | 1,713 |
| 2,263 | Combat Aircraft | 637 |
| 1,844 | Fighter Jets | 387 |
| 308 | 5th Gen Fighters | 40 |
| 419 | Bombers | 0 |
| 1,310 | Helicopters | 532 |
| 320 | Attack Helicopters | 147 |
| 53 | Military Drones (UAV) | 10 |
| Land | ||
| 4,500 | Main Battle Tanks | 1,826 |
| 11,900 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 499 |
| 8,450 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 3,110 |
| 10,560 | Artillery Systems | 5,735 |
| Naval | ||
| 59 | Submarines | 20 |
| 13 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 2 | Aircraft Carriers | 0 |
| 5 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 2 |
| Strategic | ||
| 620 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 11 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 3 |
| 4 | ICBM Systems | 0 |
| 4 | Cruise Missile Systems | 6 |
| 2 | Hypersonic Systems | 0 |
| 15,000 km | Longest Missile Range | 1,500 km |
China leads in 25 of the 27 measured categories, South Korea in 2. Numbers alone do not decide a war: training, logistics, geography, alliances and nuclear deterrence matter too. A dash means the source publishes no figure.
Sources: CSIS Missile Threat, Federation of American Scientists, IISS Military Balance, Military Atlas Index, SIPRI, Wikipedia, Wikipedia / FlightGlobal, World Bank.