Just a listing by strength of active duty personnel (Army, Navy and Air Force). U.S. and some of its allies are in bold. Allies = countries we are obligated to defend by treaty or law (Taiwan), a total of 48 (in bold are the 27 NATO members, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines and Australia), including 16 Latin American nations in the Rio pact (but not placed in bold):
- China: 2,233,000
- United States: 1,492,200
- India: 1,325,000
- North Korea: 1,190,000
- Russia: 845,000
- Pakistan: 643,800
- South Korea: 630,000
- Iran: 523,000
- Algeria: 520,000
- Turkey: 510,600
- Vietnam: 482,000
- Colombia: 466,713
- Egypt: 438,500
- Burma: 406,000
- Indonesia: 395,500
- Thailand: 360,850
- Brazil: 318,480
- Taiwan: 290,000
- Sri Lanka: 276,700
- Iraq: 271,500
- Mexico: 270,250
- Ukraine: 250,000
- Japan: 247,150
- Sudan: 244,300
- Saudi Arabia: 233,500
- France: 222,200
- South Sudan: 210,000
- Eritrea: 201,750
- Morocco: 195,800
- Germany: 186,450
- Afghanistan: 185,800
- Israel: 176,500
- Italy: 176,000
- United Kingdom: 169,150
- Canada: 166,000
- Bangladesh: 157,050
- Greece: 143,350
- Ethiopia: 138,000
- Spain: 134,900
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: 134,250
- Philippines: 125,000
- Syria: 125,000
- Cambodia: 124,300
- Peru: 115,000
- Venezuela: 115,000
- Malaysia: 109,000
- Angola: 107,000
- Jordan: 100,500
- Poland: 99,300
- Nepal: 95,750
- Nigeria: 80,000
- Argentina: 73,100
- Singapore: 72,500
- Romania: 71,400
……
61. Australia: 56,200
71. Portugal: 42,600
75. Netherlands: 37,400
78. Bulgaria: 31,300
79. Belgium: 30,700
83. Hungary: 26,500
84: Norway: 25,800
88. Czech Republic: 23,650
97. Denmark: 17,200
98. Lithuania: 17,131
100. Slovakia: 15,850
107. Croatia: 14,506
108: Albania: 14,250
129: New Zealand: 8,550 (U.S. suspended obligations in 1986)
133. Slovenia: 7,600
138. Estonia: 5,750
140: Latvia: 5,310
161: Luxembourg: 900
167+: Iceland: 0
Rio Pact includes Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and of course, the United States.
This listing is drawn from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel
It is based upon the 2014 edition of “The Military Balance” by IISS.
They also have a number of other lists…if that is your thing:
- List of countries by level of military equipment
- List of countries by military expenditures
- List of countries by military expenditure per capita
- List of countries by Military Strength Index
- List of countries by Global Militarization Index
- List of countries without armed forces
- List of militaries by country
- List of militaries that recruit foreigners
- List of countries by number of police officers
These numbers do not represent the total warmaking potential nor are they actually representative for the active personnel in the forces/militant forces, NATO ultimately faces. Short: These numbers simply do not reflect reality, especially not for authoritarian states (at least not by my calculations).
A few examples: Vietnam alone has 5million reservists and probably more than 1,4 million active members to face China at the moment. Russia has 20,000 tanks, this correlates to armed forces size, with 6k of these designated we would have an armed force of 4million with the units in ukraine and non listed border troops – plus, approx. 400,000 further non affiliated militant forces have been counted (probably more than 8-10,000,000 trained reservists in the Moscow district).
Poland reinforced its army with a national guard.
With a labour force of 700,000,000, China basically dwarfes any other nation. They will probably condense their forces to a “dual type” structure with a professional army of 2-3 million and massive mainstay of more than 10 million.
A good coefficient for dictatorships is usually 3.9 to 4.1 or 1/3 to 1/4 of active reserves. Democracies can recruit 18-20 % of their labour force, while dictatorships rely on up to 35-40% of their society (granted that they are developed and capable enough of translating the potential), since everyday life is militarized.