How Much Do Countries Spend per Soldier?
The US spends about $716,000 per active service member a year; North Korea about $4,000. What spending per soldier reveals about the quality of a military.
Headcount and budget each tell half the story. Divide one by the other and you get a useful, if rough, measure of how much a country invests in each person in uniform: the equipment they use, the training they get, the logistics behind them, and their pay and pensions.
| # | Country | Spending per active troop |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇺🇸 United States | $716K |
| 2 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | $630K |
| 3 | 🇩🇪 Germany | $618K |
| 4 | 🇦🇺 Australia | $599K |
| 5 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | $337K |
| 6 | 🇪🇸 Spain | $330K |
| 7 | 🇮🇹 Italy | $291K |
| 8 | 🇮🇱 Israel | $285K |
| 9 | 🇫🇷 France | $258K |
| 10 | 🇯🇵 Japan | $247K |
| 11 | 🇵🇱 Poland | $187K |
| 12 | 🇨🇳 China | $165K |
| 13 | 🇷🇺 Russia | $144K |
| 14 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | $106K |
| 15 | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | $93K |
| 16 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | $79K |
| 17 | 🇮🇳 India | $64K |
| 18 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | $64K |
| 19 | 🇹🇷 Turkey | $62K |
| 20 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | $37K |
| 21 | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | $18K |
| 22 | 🇮🇷 Iran | $12K |
| 23 | 🇪🇬 Egypt | $12K |
| 24 | 🇰🇵 North Korea | $4K |
The high-cost militaries
The United States tops the list at roughly $716,000 per active service member. That figure covers far more than salaries. It pays for carriers and stealth aircraft, global logistics, satellites, a vast research budget and the nuclear arsenal, all spread across a force of about 1.33 million.
The United Kingdom ($630,000), Germany ($618,000) and Australia ($599,000) come next. All three run small, professional, technology-heavy forces. Australia’s figure reflects a military of fewer than 60,000 active personnel that operates advanced fighters, submarines and surveillance aircraft across a vast area.
The mass armies
At the other end are large forces built around numbers. India spends about $64,000 per active soldier, Pakistan about $18,000 and Iran about $12,000. North Korea, where the figure depends on an outside estimate of its budget, comes in around $4,000.
These numbers need careful reading. Wages and many goods are far cheaper in these countries, so each dollar buys much more than it would in the US or Europe. Some also produce much of their own equipment at low cost. Even so, the gap is large enough to say something real: a soldier in a low-spending conscript army typically trains less, uses older equipment and has less support behind them.
China in the middle
China spends about $165,000 per active service member, more than India, Russia or South Korea on this measure but well below the US and Western Europe. That reflects a deliberate shift over the past two decades: China has cut the size of its army while spending heavily on new ships, aircraft and missiles.
Why this measure is imperfect
Three caveats apply. First, spending includes things that have little to do with active troops, such as pensions, nuclear weapons and research. Second, budgets are converted at market exchange rates, which understate spending power in lower-cost economies. Third, countries that rely on reserves or conscripts can look cheap per soldier while still being able to field very large forces. South Korea, for example, spends about $106,000 per active soldier but has more than three million reservists.
Used carefully, though, spending per soldier is a good first check on whether a large army is also a capable one. Compare North Korea and South Korea or India and Pakistan to see the pattern in detail.