Country Profile
🇦🇪
United Arab Emirates
Power index #21 / 118🛰 Drones: Moderate✓ No tracked active conflict
Composite power index · percentile among 118 scored countries#21
WEAKESTP25MEDIANP75STRONGEST
Figures are educated estimates from open reporting or, where marked, formula-modeled. Blank fields are not estimated, not assumed zero.
Overview
United Arab Emirates is located in Asia (Western Asia). It has an estimated population of 10,000,000, with a nominal GDP of roughly $530 billion (about $53,000 per capita). Its armed forces field an estimated 65,000 active-duty personnel, ranking #58 of 174 countries in this dataset by active personnel. Estimated annual defense spending is around $25B, roughly 4.7% of GDP. Its inventory includes an estimated 550 military aircraft, 430 tanks, 80 naval vessels. United Arab Emirates's air fleet is assessed as modern and its armored fleet as likely modern in this dataset's modernity model. United Arab Emirates 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
No tracked active conflicts involving United Arab Emirates. See the Conflict Watch map for all 19 tracked conflicts.
Share of World
of world population
10,000,000 people
of world GDP
$530B nominal
of world defense spending
$25B / year
of world active personnel
65,000 soldiers
Economy & Demographics
Manpower
Financials & Strategic
Defense burden: 4.7% of GDP
Spend per active soldier: $385k / yr
Soldiers per 1,000 people: 6.5
🛰️Drone / UAV Capability
Moderate
Airpower
Helicopters (Total)
n/a
✈️Air Fleet Modernity
MODERNModernity score 4.3/5.0
Named Aircraft Fleet (140 of 550 total)
ESTIMATED
F-16E/F Block 60 GEN 4.5 · ADVANCED
80
Mirage 2000-9 GEN 4 · MAINSTAY
60
Fleet Modernity Score
4.3 / 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
LIKELY MODERNHeuristic: defense spend per soldier
Naval Power
⚓Naval Fleet Modernity
LIKELY MODERNHeuristic: defense spend per soldier, not a fleet inspection
Regional Context — Western Asia
United Arab Emirates ranks #3 of 17 in Western Asia on the composite power index. Bars are relative index scores; follow any row to that country's profile.
Compare United Arab Emirates 18 matchups
United Arab Emirates vs United StatesUnited Arab Emirates vs RussiaUnited Arab Emirates vs ChinaUnited Arab Emirates vs IndiaUnited Arab Emirates vs South KoreaUnited Arab Emirates vs North KoreaUnited Arab Emirates vs JapanUnited Arab Emirates vs TürkiyeUnited Arab Emirates vs Saudi ArabiaUnited Arab Emirates vs IranUnited Arab Emirates vs PakistanUnited Arab Emirates vs EgyptUnited Arab Emirates vs GermanyUnited Arab Emirates vs VietnamUnited Arab Emirates vs FranceUnited Arab Emirates vs United KingdomUnited Arab Emirates vs IsraelUnited Arab Emirates vs Ukraine
Want a matchup not listed — or United Arab Emirates 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.