Country Profile
🇸🇦
Saudi Arabia
Power index #9 / 118🛰 Drones: Moderate⚠ 2 active conflicts
Composite power index · percentile among 118 scored countries#9
WEAKESTP25MEDIANP75STRONGEST
Figures are educated estimates from open reporting or, where marked, formula-modeled. Blank fields are not estimated, not assumed zero.
Overview
Saudi Arabia is located in Asia (Western Asia). It has an estimated population of 34,000,000, with a nominal GDP of roughly $1,100 billion (about $32,353 per capita). Its armed forces field an estimated 250,000 active-duty personnel, ranking #20 of 174 countries in this dataset by active personnel. Estimated annual defense spending is around $80B, roughly 7.3% of GDP. Its inventory includes an estimated 900 military aircraft, 1,100 tanks, 55 naval vessels. Saudi Arabia's air fleet is assessed as advanced and its armored fleet as advanced in this dataset's modernity model. Saudi Arabia has a moderate-tier documented drone/UAV program.
Auto-generated from the figures on this page — not independently researched prose.
Global Standing percentile per metric
Active Conflicts
2026 Iran War
Middle East · US/Israel vs. Iran, began Feb 2026
10,000
est. deaths
A 2026 conflict following coordinated US and Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear, missile and military leadership infrastructure, with retaliatory strikes across the Gulf. Casualty and leadership-impact claims are heavily contested; treat specific claims from any single side with caution.
SRC: aggregated open-source reporting, contested
Yemen Civil War / Red Sea Crisis
Middle East · Houthis vs. Saudi-backed government, since 2014
2,000
est. deaths
Conflict between the Houthi movement (Iran-aligned) and the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government, now entangled with the Red Sea shipping crisis.
SRC: mixed estimates, 2025
Historical Conflicts in this dataset
Gulf War
1990–1991 · Middle East · Iraq invasion of Kuwait, US-led coalition response
35,000
est. deaths
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait triggered a US-led coalition response that expelled Iraqi forces in a 100-hour ground campaign.
SRC: widely-cited historical estimate
Share of World
of world population
34,000,000 people
of world GDP
$1,100B nominal
of world defense spending
$80B / year
of world active personnel
250,000 soldiers
Economy & Demographics
Manpower
Financials & Strategic
Defense burden: 7.3% of GDP
Spend per active soldier: $320k / yr
Soldiers per 1,000 people: 7.4
🛰️Drone / UAV Capability
Moderate
Airpower
Helicopters (Total)
0
✈️Air Fleet Modernity
ADVANCEDModernity score 4.5/5.0
Named Aircraft Fleet (302 of 900 total)
ESTIMATED
F-15 (C/S/SA variants) GEN 4.5 · ADVANCED
230
Eurofighter Typhoon GEN 4.5 · ADVANCED
72
Fleet Modernity Score
4.5 / 5.0
Count-weighted average generation of the named fleet above, NOT raw aircraft count. This is exactly the fix for "600 obsolete jets vs. 300 modern ones": North Korea has more aircraft than most of its neighbors but a modernity score near 2.0 (nearly all Gen 2-3), while the US and Israel score near 4.5-5.0 despite smaller headline totals in some matchups.
Land Power
🛡️Armor Fleet Modernity
ADVANCEDCount-weighted era of the named fleet
Named Tank Fleet (450 of 1,100 total)
ESTIMATED
M1A2S Abrams ADVANCED
450
Era reflects armor generation, not raw count — e.g. North Korea's tank fleet is numerically large but almost entirely Cold War-era T-55/T-62 derivatives, while a much smaller modern Advanced-era fleet (M1A2 Abrams, Leopard 2A7, K2 Black Panther class) typically outmatches it on paper.
Naval Power
⚓Naval Fleet Modernity
LIKELY MODERNHeuristic: defense spend per soldier, not a fleet inspection
Regional Context — Western Asia
Saudi Arabia ranks #2 of 17 in Western Asia on the composite power index. Bars are relative index scores; follow any row to that country's profile.
Compare Saudi Arabia 19 matchups
Saudi Arabia vs United StatesSaudi Arabia vs RussiaSaudi Arabia vs ChinaSaudi Arabia vs IndiaSaudi Arabia vs South KoreaSaudi Arabia vs North KoreaSaudi Arabia vs JapanSaudi Arabia vs TürkiyeSaudi Arabia vs IranSaudi Arabia vs PakistanSaudi Arabia vs EgyptSaudi Arabia vs GermanySaudi Arabia vs VietnamSaudi Arabia vs FranceSaudi Arabia vs United KingdomSaudi Arabia vs United Arab EmiratesSaudi Arabia vs IsraelSaudi Arabia vs UkraineSaudi Arabia vs Yemen
Want a matchup not listed — or Saudi Arabia against a whole coalition? Open the Alliance Builder to pick any countries and stack multiple against one.
Economic confidence: High. Military confidence: Low. Ranks shown as "#x of y" count only countries with a reported value for that metric. The composite power index averages the six category scores (log-scaled against the world leader per metric) and is this site's own model — not an official rating.