The Biggest Armies in the Middle East

What We’re Showing

This chart shows the top ten countries in the Middle East by total military personnel as of August 2024. The data comes from GlobalFirepower.com, and includes both active and reserve personnel.

Key Takeaways

• Egypt and Iran have the largest armies in the Middle East, each with over 1 million personnel
• Israel's forces have 170k active personnel, but over 465k in reserve
• Iran has the largest missile arsenal in the Middle East and the fifth-largest rocket artillery globally