Tajikistan remains among the countries with the lowest defense spending per capita in Central Asia. According to estimates from the international analytical resource Global Firepower for 2026, this figure is around $43 per person, which is significantly lower than that of other countries in the region.
By comparison, Kazakhstan spends nearly seven times more on defense — about $288 per person. In Turkmenistan, this figure is approximately $254, in Uzbekistan it is around $170, and in Kyrgyzstan it is about $106 per person.
According to Global Firepower data, the ranking of military power of countries is formed based on more than 60 factors — from the size of the army and armaments to logistics, financial resources, and geographical conditions. The size of the defense budget is just one of the parameters and does not determine the country’s final position.
In the global military power ranking for 2026, Tajikistan ranks 100th, falling behind both leading powers and several countries in the region.
Experts from Global Firepower note that the per capita spending figure reflects not so much the level of military power as the burden on the economy and the priority of the defense sector.
According to Global Firepower, the top ten countries by military power in 2026 include the USA, Russia, China, India, South Korea, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Italy.
