Finland

Finland: High Per-Capita Income, Top Governance Scores, Highest Military-Spending Ratio in Batch

Finland's economy was valued at $298.70 billion in 2024, with per-capita output of $53,149.77 — the highest in this batch — and a population of about 5.62 million, per World Bank WDI figures, the smallest population among the countries assessed here.

Fiscal Position

The IMF's World Economic Outlook puts Finnish government debt at 93.1 percent of GDP for 2026. Foreign reserves stood at $16.31 billion in 2025, per IMF IFS data.

Military Spending

SIPRI's 2025 figures put Finnish military expenditure at $8.08 billion, or 2.571 percent of GDP under SIPRI's own GDP series — the highest milex-to-GDP ratio among the countries in this batch. That ratio should not be recomputed against the World Bank's $298.70 billion GDP figure above, since the two series are not interchangeable. Active personnel numbered just 19,000 in 2022, per COW NMC — the smallest force in this batch — giving Finland a CINC score of 0.00138 for that year, also the lowest in this set.

Governance

V-Dem's 2025 data scores Finland at 0.852 on electoral democracy and 0.808 on liberal democracy, with a state capacity score of 0.985 — the highest state-capacity reading in this batch, and a narrow gap between the electoral and liberal democracy measures.

Energy

Finland's primary energy consumption was 1.2045 exajoules in 2024, and electricity generation reached 82.3 terawatt-hours in 2025, per Our World in Data. Both oil and gas production are recorded as 0.0 terawatt-hours, dated 2016 — consistent with Finland having no significant domestic hydrocarbon production, though that figure is nearly a decade old and not confirmed as current.

Data Gaps

No core metrics are missing for Finland in this dataset. The oil and gas production figures are the only stale data points, dated 2016 against a 2024-2026 vintage for the rest of the file. Finland combines the smallest active-duty force and lowest CINC score in this batch with the highest military-spending ratio as a share of its own GDP series — a combination that reflects a small, well-funded force rather than a large one.

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