Compare / United States vs South Korea
United States vs South Korea
The United States ranks #1 and South Korea ranks #6 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. The United States spends $954B on defense with 1.34M active personnel; South Korea spends $47.8B with 450K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Global Rank | #6 |
| $954B | Defense Budget | $47.8B |
| 3.1% | Budget % of GDP | 2.6% |
| $30.77T | GDP | $1.87T |
| 341.78M | Population | 51.68M |
| Personnel | ||
| 1.34M | Active Personnel | 450K |
| 805K | Reserve Personnel | 3.10M |
| 0 | Paramilitary | 14K |
| Air | ||
| 12,604 | Military Aircraft | 1,713 |
| 2,809 | Combat Aircraft | 637 |
| 2,473 | Fighter Jets | 387 |
| 642 | 5th Gen Fighters | 40 |
| 135 | Bombers | 0 |
| 5,062 | Helicopters | 532 |
| 1,057 | Attack Helicopters | 147 |
| 355 | Military Drones (UAV) | 10 |
| Land | ||
| 2,666 | Main Battle Tanks | 1,826 |
| 7,683 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 499 |
| 7,328 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 3,110 |
| 3,850 | Artillery Systems | 5,735 |
| Naval | ||
| 67 | Submarines | 20 |
| 67 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 11 | Aircraft Carriers | 0 |
| 9 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 2 |
| Strategic | ||
| 5,042 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 3 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 3 |
| 1 | ICBM Systems | 0 |
| 4 | Cruise Missile Systems | 6 |
| 1 | Hypersonic Systems | 0 |
| 13,000 km | Longest Missile Range | 1,500 km |
The United States leads in 22 of the 26 measured categories, South Korea in 4. 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.