Ireland

Ireland: Large Economy, Minimal Military Footprint

Ireland's GDP was recorded at $609.16 billion in 2024, per the World Bank's World Development Indicators — a figure heavily shaped by the country's role as a hub for multinational corporate activity — with GDP per capita of $112,895 the same year and a population of 5.4 million. Government debt stood at 31.6 percent of GDP for 2026 on the IMF's World Economic Outlook, and reserves reached $11.97 billion in 2025 per IMF International Financial Statistics.

Defense spending is among the lightest relative to economic size tracked in this dataset. SIPRI's 2025 military expenditure data puts outlay at roughly $1.55 billion, or just 0.219 percent of GDP on SIPRI's own GDP series — a figure that should not be checked against the World Bank's $609.16 billion GDP estimate above, since the two series are calculated separately. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities (NMC) dataset lists only 8,000 active personnel as of 2022 and a composite index of national capability (CINC) of 0.00045 for that year, reflecting Ireland's long-standing policy of military neutrality.

Governance indicators are strong. V-Dem's 2025 data (v15) scores Ireland at 0.887 on electoral democracy, 0.822 on liberal democracy, and 0.983 on state capacity.

Energy figures show a mix of current and dated data. Our World in Data's energy series lists primary energy consumption of 0.655 exajoules in 2024 and electricity generation of 30.95 terawatt-hours in 2025, both recent. Oil production is recorded as zero while gas production stands at 32.25 terawatt-hours — but that gas figure is dated to 2016, a decade before the other energy figures cited here, and predates subsequent shifts in Irish offshore gas output.

Data gaps

The gas production figure (2016) is a decade older than the primary energy and electricity figures (2024-2025) in the same bundle and should not be read as current. No figures on arms imports, nuclear posture, or alliance commitments appear here. The SIPRI milex-to-GDP ratio uses SIPRI's internal GDP series, not the World Bank's $609.16 billion WDI figure cited above, and the two should not be divided against each other to check the math.

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