Chile

Chile: Low Debt, Strong Governance Scores, Modest Military Footprint

Chile's economy was valued at $330.27 billion in 2024, with per-capita output of $16,709.89 and a population of about 19.76 million, per World Bank WDI figures.

Fiscal Position

The IMF's World Economic Outlook puts Chilean government debt at 42.5 percent of GDP for 2026 — the second-lowest debt ratio in this batch, after Taiwan. Foreign reserves stood at $49.43 billion in 2025, per IMF IFS data, a sizable cushion relative to Chile's $330.27 billion GDP and its $5.33 billion military budget.

Military Spending

SIPRI's 2025 figures put Chilean military expenditure at $5.33 billion, or 1.52 percent of GDP under SIPRI's own GDP series. That ratio should not be recomputed against the World Bank's $330.27 billion GDP figure above. Active personnel numbered 69,000 in 2022, per COW NMC, which scores Chile's CINC at 0.0023 for that year — one of the lower capability scores in this batch.

Governance

V-Dem's 2025 data scores Chile at 0.839 on electoral democracy and 0.781 on liberal democracy, with a state capacity score of 0.951. All three figures are among the strongest in this batch, with a relatively narrow gap between the electoral and liberal democracy measures compared with some other countries assessed here.

Energy

Chile's primary energy consumption was 1.867 exajoules in 2024, and electricity generation reached 88.5 terawatt-hours in 2025, per Our World in Data. Domestic oil production was 3.191 terawatt-hours and gas production 13.123 terawatt-hours, both dated 2016 — close to a decade old, and should not be treated as current output levels. No more recent production figures are available here.

Military Capability Context

The 0.0023 CINC score, drawn from COW NMC's composite index of military, demographic and industrial indicators, is a separate methodology from SIPRI's spending data and should not be read as a direct extension of the $5.33 billion milex figure above.

Data Gaps

No metrics are missing for Chile in this dataset. The oil and gas production figures are the only stale data points, both roughly nine years old relative to the 2024-2026 figures elsewhere in the file.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, IMF IFS, SIPRI Milex, COW NMC, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy)