{
  "id": 16638313,
  "title": "The largest militaries in the world, ranked by the number of active troops",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/26/the-largest-militaries-in-the-world-ranked-by-the-number-of-active",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-26T17:26:09.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Business Insider",
    "slug": "business-insider",
    "url": "https://www.businessinsider.com/largest-militaries-ranked-by-size"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The United States maintains the largest active armed forces in the world, with 1.3 million personnel. However, when considering defense budgets, China leads the pack with a staggering $242 billion allocated to its military. India follows closely behind with a budget of $77 billion, while the United States spends $778 billion on defense. North Korea, despite its repressive regime and threats to neighboring states, still fields a substantial military with 1.2 million active troops.",
  "summary": "From China and the US to Russia and Iran, here are the 25 largest militaries in the world, ranked by the number of active-duty armed forces.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}