South Korea

South Korea: Steady Economic Weight, Moderate Military Spending Share

South Korea's economy was worth $1.9 trillion in 2024, per the World Bank's WDI figures, with GDP per capita at $36,239 and a population of 51.8 million the same year. The IMF's WEO projects government debt at 54.4% of GDP in 2026.

Military and Fiscal Position

SIPRI's 2025 figures put South Korean military expenditure at $47.8 billion, equivalent to 2.601% of GDP under SIPRI's own GDP series. That share should not be recalculated against the World Bank's GDP figure above, since the two series are not interchangeable. The IMF's IFS data show reserves of $423.3 billion in 2025.

On manpower, the Correlates of War National Material Capabilities (COW NMC) dataset lists 555,000 active personnel as of 2022, with a composite index of national capability (CINC) score of 0.0200 for the same year — one of the higher scores among the countries tracked here, reflecting South Korea's combined population, military and industrial base as COW measures it.

Governance

V-Dem's 2025 (v15) scores rate South Korea at 0.819 on the electoral democracy index and 0.739 on liberal democracy, with a state capacity score of 0.917 — indicating strong administrative and institutional capability by V-Dem's measure.

Energy

Per Our World in Data's energy figures, South Korea consumed 13.0 exajoules of primary energy in 2024 and generated 624.66 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025. Domestic oil production was recorded at 0.0 TWh and gas production at 1.786 TWh, but both figures date to 2016 — a decade old — and say nothing about current domestic output levels. Set against electricity generation of 624.66 TWh in 2025, the near-absence of recorded domestic oil and gas production, even allowing for the age of that figure, is consistent with a generation base that depends heavily on imported fuel or other sources not broken out in this dataset.

Summary

Taken together, the figures describe an economy of substantial size — $1.9 trillion per the World Bank — with military spending, at $47.8 billion per SIPRI, that is sizable in absolute dollar terms but a middling share of SIPRI's own GDP measure at 2.601%. The personnel figure of 555,000 and CINC score of 0.0200, both from COW NMC and dated 2022, point to one of the larger standing militaries among the countries covered in this batch. V-Dem's current governance scores place South Korea solidly in the high range on both electoral and liberal democracy, with a state capacity score of 0.917 indicating strong institutional reach. The clearest data gap is on energy production, where the only figures available are nine years old.

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