Israel

Israel: High-Income Base, Outsized Defense Burden

Economic foundation

Israel's economy was worth $540.4 billion in 2024, per World Bank WDI, with a population of 9.97 million recorded the same year. Output per person reaches about $54,177 on the World Bank's 2024 figures — a high-income base that allows a small state to fund a large defense establishment without the revenue constraints facing more populous neighbors.

The IMF's World Economic Outlook projects general government debt at 69.8 percent of GDP for 2026. The IMF's International Financial Statistics record reserves of $229.5 billion in 2025, a sum equal to a substantial share of annual output and a notable external buffer for an economy of this size.

Military posture

SIPRI's 2025 figures put military expenditure at $48.3 billion, or 7.809 percent of GDP on SIPRI's accounting. That share is the defining figure in this file: a defense burden approaching eight percent of national output, sustained by a population under 10 million and a high per-capita income base. The dataset provides no breakdown of that spending by procurement, personnel or operations.

The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities series, current to 2022, records 170,000 active personnel and a Composite Index of National Capability score of 0.00378. CINC measures a state's share of global totals across six components, so the 2022 score places Israel at under half a percent of measured world capability — a reminder that the index weights population, industrial mass and energy consumption rather than force quality or technology. The dataset carries no reserve-mobilization figure, which for Israel is a material omission in any manpower assessment.

The FAS Nuclear Notebook estimates 90 warheads as of 2025. This is an external estimate; the file contains no declared figure.

Governance indicators

V-Dem's v15 release scores Israel for 2025 at 0.694 on electoral democracy and 0.588 on liberal democracy, both zero-to-one scales. State capacity is scored at 0.889, the strongest of the three readings and high in absolute terms.

Energy

Our World in Data records primary energy of 1.0 exajoule in 2024 and electricity generation of 82.1 TWh in 2025. Gas production reached 214.3 TWh in 2024, a figure large relative to the country's overall energy footprint. The oil production figure in the dataset is 0.248 TWh for 2016 and is both negligible and a decade out of date; no current oil reading is available here.

Data gaps

The file contains no data on reserve forces, arms transfers or external military assistance, conflict events, casualties, or alliance commitments. Manpower and capability readings are three years behind the fiscal and nuclear estimates.

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