Thailand

Thailand: Moderate Debt, Light Defense Burden, Mixed Governance Scores

Thailand's economy totaled $526.5 billion in 2024, per the World Bank's WDI figures, with GDP per capita of $7,347 and a population of 71.67 million the same year. Government debt is projected at 66.8 percent of GDP in 2026, per the IMF's World Economic Outlook, a middling level among the states in this briefing series. Reserves stood at $249.33 billion in 2025, per the IMF's International Financial Statistics.

Military Capacity

Military spending was $5.98 billion in 2025, equal to 1.038 percent of GDP, per SIPRI's 2025 figures, a modest burden relative to other countries in this set. SIPRI computes that ratio against its own GDP series, distinct from the World Bank's $526.5 billion figure cited above, and the two should not be cross-divided. Active personnel numbered 361,000 in 2022, per the Correlates of War National Material Capabilities (COW NMC) dataset — a large force relative to the modest defense budget, and higher than the personnel count recorded for several wealthier countries in this series — with a composite index of national capability (CINC) of 0.0079 for that year.

Governance

V-Dem's 2025 figures (v15) score Thailand's electoral democracy at 0.424 and liberal democracy at 0.314, with state capacity at 0.416 — mid-range scores that place Thailand between the fully democratic and more authoritarian states covered in this series. The relatively even spread across the three governance metrics, unlike some other countries in this set where state capacity diverges sharply from the democracy indices, suggests a governance profile without a single standout dimension.

Energy

Thailand consumed 5.11 exajoules of primary energy in 2024 and generated 188.24 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025, per Our World in Data. Oil production was 144.1 TWh and gas production 285.4 TWh, both for 2024 — combined output below the country's own electricity generation figure, though the two metrics are not directly comparable without further detail. No import or export data was supplied alongside these production figures, so the balance between domestic production and consumption cannot be determined from the figures available here.

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