Compare / United States vs China
United States vs China
The United States ranks #1 and China ranks #2 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. The United States spends $954B on defense with 1.34M active personnel; China spends $336B with 2.04M.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Global Rank | #2 |
| $954B | Defense Budget | $336B |
| 3.1% | Budget % of GDP | 1.7% |
| $30.77T | GDP | $19.50T |
| 341.78M | Population | 1.41B |
| Personnel | ||
| 1.34M | Active Personnel | 2.04M |
| 805K | Reserve Personnel | 510K |
| 0 | Paramilitary | 500K |
| Air | ||
| 12,604 | Military Aircraft | 5,316 |
| 2,809 | Combat Aircraft | 2,263 |
| 2,473 | Fighter Jets | 1,844 |
| 642 | 5th Gen Fighters | 308 |
| 135 | Bombers | 419 |
| 5,062 | Helicopters | 1,310 |
| 1,057 | Attack Helicopters | 320 |
| 355 | Military Drones (UAV) | 53 |
| Land | ||
| 2,666 | Main Battle Tanks | 4,500 |
| 7,683 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 11,900 |
| 7,328 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 8,450 |
| 3,850 | Artillery Systems | 10,560 |
| Naval | ||
| 67 | Submarines | 59 |
| 67 | Nuclear Submarines | 13 |
| 11 | Aircraft Carriers | 2 |
| 9 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 5 |
| Strategic | ||
| 5,042 | Nuclear Warheads | 620 |
| 3 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 11 |
| 1 | ICBM Systems | 4 |
| 4 | Cruise Missile Systems | 4 |
| 1 | Hypersonic Systems | 2 |
| 13,000 km | Longest Missile Range | 15,000 km |
The United States leads in 15 of the 26 measured categories, China in 11. 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.