- 1. Military Powers Ranking 2025: 30 Strongest Armies in the World
- 2. The top 10 in detail: numbers and offensive potential
- 3. 1 - United States
- 4. 2 - Russia
- 5. 3 - China
- 6. 4 - India
- 7. 5 - South Korea
- 8. 6 - United Kingdom
- 9. 7 - France
- 10. 8 - Japan
- 11. 9 - Turkey
- 12. 10 - Italy
- 13. Classification Method
Military Powers Ranking 2025: 30 Strongest Armies in the World
Which are the most formidable powers and the countries with the strongest army in the world?
The website Global Firepower, in 2025, seeks to answer this question, analyzing over 60 factors to determine the offensive military potential of the world's leading countries (145 in total), arriving at a final score called the PowerIndex.
The closer the PowerIndex is to 0.0000, the more militarily powerful the nation is. Is Italy in the top 30? Let's find out together:
The top 10 in detail: numbers and offensive potential
To better understand what determines a nation's military power, let's focus on the top 10 countries in the ranking, providing more data regarding the available combat units (data from Global Firepower updated to 2025).
Note: For defense budget figures, the reference currency is the US dollar.
1 - United States
Rank: 1
P. Index: 0.0744
Population: 341,963,408
♂️ Military Personnel: 2,127,500
Air Units: 13,043
Tanks: 4,640
Naval Units: 440
Budget: $895 billion
2 - Russia
Rank: 2
P. Index: 0.0788
Population: 140,820,810
♂️ Military Personnel: 3,570,000
Air Units: 4,292
Tanks: 5,750
Naval Units: 419
Budget: $126 billion
3 - China
Rank: 3
P. Index: 0.0788
Population: 1,415,043,270
♂️ Military Personnel: 3,170,000
Air Units: 3,309
Tanks: 6,800
Naval Units: 754
Budget: $267 billion
4 - India
Rank: 4
P. Index: 0.1184
Population: 1,409,128,296
♂️ Military Personnel: 5,137,550
Air Units: 2,229
Tanks: 4,201
Naval Units: 293
Budget: $75 billion
5 - South Korea
Rank: 5
P. Index: 0.1656
Population: 52,081,799
♂️ Military Personnel: 3,820,000
Air Units: 1,592
Tanks: 2,236
Naval Units: 227
Budget: $46.3 billion
6 - United Kingdom
Rank: 6
P. Index: 0.1785
Population: 68,459,055
♂️ Military Personnel: 1,108,860
Air Units: 631
Tanks: 227
Naval Units: 109
Budget: $71.5 billion
7 - France
Rank: 7
P. Index: 0.1788
Population: 68,374,591
♂️ Military Personnel: 376,000
Air Units: 976
Tanks: 215
Naval Units: 129
Budget: $55 billion
8 - Japan
Rank: 8
P. Index: 0.1839
Population: 123,201,945
♂️ Military Personnel: 328,150
Air Units: 1,443
Tanks: 521
Naval Units: 159
Budget: $57 billion
9 - Turkey
Rank: 9
P. Index: 0.1902
Population: 84,119,531
♂️ Military Personnel: 883,900
Air Units: 1,083
Tanks: 2,238
Naval Units: 182
Budget: $47 billion
10 - Italy
Rank: 10
P. Index: 0.2164
Population: 60,964,931
♂️ Military Personnel: 289,000
Air Units: 729
Tanks: 200
Naval Units: 196
Budget: $30.9 billion
Classification Method
The classification method is based on the PowerIndex, which considers various factors, the most important of which are:
- availability and diversity of equipment and armaments (fighter jets, tanks, naval units, etc.),
- total military personnel.
- defense budget and total population (key consideration in relation to workforce potential in times of necessity).
- nation's technological advancement.
- geographical, logistical, industrial, and financial conditions.
- number and influence of international allies.
Remember, the closer the military PowerIndex is to 0.0000, the more militarily powerful the nation is. For more details, visit the official website of Global Firepower.