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Countries with the Most Tanks

Can you name the countries that have the most tanks?
Think about countries who believe they might get invaded, or who have terrain suitable for tanks
As of January 2026. At least one country may have less tanks now.
Quiz by
milk
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Last updated: March 5, 2026
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First submittedApril 17, 2013
Times taken106,928
Average score75.0%
Rating4.91
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# Tanks
Country
6,800
China
5,750
Russia
4,640
United States
4,344
North Korea
4,201
India
3,620
Egypt
2,627
Pakistan
# Tanks
Country
2,238
Turkey
2,236
South Korea
1,713
Iran
1,485
Algeria
1,458
Jordan
1,374
Vietnam
1,344
Greece
# Tanks
Country
1,300
Israel
1,114
Ukraine
1,025
Iraq
903
Morocco
888
Taiwan
840
Saudi Arabia
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124 Comments
+71
Level 82
May 17, 2018
Wow, Russia has a serious tank obsession.
+37
Level 73
Aug 3, 2018
that's not a new thing
+77
Level 47
Jan 11, 2020
most of them are just cold war era tanks that have been idle for the past 50 years though
+2
Level 22
Jun 26, 2021
whut?
+11
Level 82
Aug 19, 2021
More tanks than the next two countries combined? I'd call that a bit insane honestly
+1
Level 86
Feb 28, 2024
More than the next three, even.
+7
Level 69
Nov 10, 2024
The next three combined is 16,185 so no
+9
Level 73
Aug 26, 2021
usa fanboys here
+18
Level 62
Aug 26, 2021
But it's true though. Countries like China, Russia, and North Korea have big armies but a lot of the equipment is cold war era and often out of date
+11
Level 71
Aug 26, 2021
Hey, at least Russia has a powerful military. What's Syria doing with more tanks than China?
+6
Level 62
Aug 26, 2021
The equipment tends to be cold war era especially with the tanks
+3
Level 54
May 22, 2022
lol exactly syria has so many tanks for its size
+1
Level 60
May 26, 2024
north korea:?
+22
Level 78
Feb 7, 2023
Russia has the illusion of a powerful military. In reality, Russia is REALLY bad at war. Like historically bad.
+14
Level 44
Feb 17, 2023
Russia beat Hitler's nazi Germany and Napoléon's french empire though
+26
Level 48
Apr 20, 2023
But that wasn't because of skill. They just retreated and their enemies didn't know how to handle the winter.
+21
Level 89
Jul 13, 2023
Also, the Soviet Union just kept throwing bodies to the front. They recorded something like 11M military related deaths to Germany's 5M. Sheer numbers was a huge factor in their success.
+18
Level 47
Feb 28, 2024
Russia's army is so bad that it beat Napolean, the entire Axis forces, and a country that is being aided by the worlds strongest military force.
+10
Level 39
Apr 15, 2024
Russia the country is great at war. Its military, not so much, although its still quite powerful (although evidently not as strong as it would like all of us to belive). But the country and its elements has defeated armies, dethroned kings and ended empires.
+9
Level 47
Apr 15, 2024
Battle at Borodino was perhaps the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars up until that time, which arguably was a French strategic loss since the Russian army did not break and the French took irrecoverable losses. And it was all fought in the beginning of September.

WWII was indeed a meat grinder but the bulk majority of Soviet military losses were in the beginning years of the war when the Soviets were both caught off guard and, believe it or not, had a military manpower deficit.

+3
Level 38
Apr 17, 2024
I believe that. Nazi troops were good at mobilization so fewer number in all but always outnumber the allies in critical battlefields.
+1
Level 56
Jul 12, 2025
Historically? Mate, I dont think you wanna hear what I was gonna say.
+1
Level 60
Apr 15, 2024
It's doing a thing called "civil war"
+4
Level 24
Dec 20, 2022
They also have an obssesion with nukes, reforming the soviet union, communism, world domination, and vodka
+2
Level 65
Feb 28, 2024
it makes sense for a huge country without natural borders or any obstructions to invasion especially to the west.
+7
Level 79
May 17, 2018
Lots of old T34s still floating around?
+28
Level 65
Oct 12, 2018
The Russians don't maintain any T-34s except for parades - the huge number is made up of huge numbers of stored T-55s, T-62s and T-72s. They've actually been scrapping their old T-64s and T-80s so the total number might have dropped by a few thousand in the last couple of years.
+22
Level 81
Aug 18, 2021
This guy tanks
+3
Level 56
Jul 12, 2025
Tanks for the clarification.
+11
Level 84
May 17, 2018
Europe isn't liking the look of that Russian tank superiority
+13
Level 79
Sep 7, 2018
As long as Trump doesn't pull the US out of NATO, Russia's tanks could easily be destroyed by American and EU aircraft and other tactical weapons systems. Even twenty thousand of them.
+8
Level 64
Oct 12, 2018
Yes, but only in the context of all-out warfare. Tanks can stay perfectly well hidden from air attacks as long as they don't move. It's only when they come out in combat that they can be destroyed from the air.
+3
Level 45
May 25, 2025
Seven years down the road and it OP was correct, Russian tanks can be picked apart even by aerial drones.
+1
Level 84
Oct 12, 2018
I'd still rather there wasn't such a disparity, preferably less Russian tanks haha
+12
Level ∞
Aug 17, 2021
During the Cold War it was pretty much understood that the Soviet Union could easily roll through Europe with its massive tank and troop superiority. Which is why NATO relied on a policy of nuclear deterrence.
+8
Level 79
Aug 26, 2021
source? During NATO's brief intervention in Libya nearly 6,000 ground targets were destroyed including 600 of Qaddafi's tanks, The armored division he sent to Benghazi would have easily rolled over it... except that it was obliterated en route. Tanks are just targets when you have air superiority. Nuclear arms build-up in the Cold War was about mutually-assured destruction in the case of nuclear war; some generals and strategists talked about using tactical nukes in a conventional war, but most of them were labeled kooks. There's no situation where it would be been worth the risk of inciting a counter-strike.
+5
Level 65
Jan 28, 2024
Tank warfare in Libya and Europe are two totally different propositions. In Libya you have huge open areas completely without cover and very slightly populated. This leaves tanks totally vulnerable from the air.

NATO had a policy not to rule out first use of nuclear weapons while the USSR explicitly vowed that they would not be the first to fire nukes. The reason for this was that NATO didn't believe that they could defend mainland Europe from the Warsaw Pact in a conventional war.

+4
Level ∞
Feb 27, 2024
The U.S. developed tactical nukes to repel a hypothetical Soviet tank invasion into western Germany. Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulda_Gap

"During the Cold War, the Fulda Gap offered one of the two obvious routes for a hypothetical Soviet tank attack on West Germany from Eastern Europe (especially from East Germany); the other route crossed the North German Plain. A third, less likely, route involved travelling up through the Danube River valley through neutral Austria. The concept of a major tank battle along the Fulda Gap became a predominant element of NATO war planning during the Cold War. With such an eventuality in mind, weapons were evolved such as nuclear tube and missile artillery, the nuclear recoilless gun/tactical launcher Davy Crockett, Special Atomic Demolition Munitions, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, and A-10 ground attack aircraft."

+7
Level ∞
Feb 27, 2024
Keep in mind that warfare in the 1950s and 1960s would be much different than today. Now we have satellites and smart missiles. Back then, not. So a massed tank invasion would have been quite difficult to repel.

Keep in mind that, if the USSR decided to invade Germany in the 1960s, the U.S. would not necessarily have air superiority.

Comparing the Soviet Union of the Cold War era to Libya (!) in the 2010s makes no sense.

+3
Level 56
Oct 12, 2018
How many of those tanks are of the inflatable variety? https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/world/europe/russia-decoy-weapon.html
+4
Level 72
Aug 29, 2021
Inflatable paywall :'(
+5
Level 39
Apr 15, 2024
Ukraine, Georgia or even Chechnia shows that a numbers superiority in Tanks is of very limited use in the modern battlefield, especially if they are technically obsolete like the old soviet tanks. Drones, manpads and superior, modern Tanks just take them out and the crew with it.
+69
Level 93
May 17, 2018
Tanks for making this quiz!
+17
Level 81
May 17, 2018
Tanks for making me laugh!
+17
Level 82
May 17, 2018
Apparently we're not counting giant Ford Expeditions and Hummer H3s as tanks—maybe they're just Urban Assault Vehicles.
+36
Level 94
Jun 20, 2018
Not sure why, but Taiwan strikes me as really strange. Tanks don't strike me as defensive materiel, and their options to invade seem... limited.
+2
Level 25
Jul 24, 2018
Yeah that seems a little unusual
+16
Level 79
Sep 7, 2018
Maybe Taiwanese tanks are amphibious
+7
Level 65
Oct 12, 2018
The Taiwanese tank count includes a lot of semi-static M48s that are only serving as bunkers.
+4
Level 93
Oct 12, 2018
The little blurb that accompanies the front page feature for this quiz today said "Strictly for defensive purposes, naturally." In the case of Taiwan, that statement is accurate.
+8
Level 60
Aug 18, 2021
Same for Cuba.
+15
Level 89
Oct 12, 2018
Important to remember when taking this quiz that tanks are more useful in deserts than they are in jungles.
+27
Level 83
Oct 12, 2018
You mean when tanking this quiz, right?
+4
Level 78
Aug 26, 2021
That's what I thought at first but then it turns out Vietnam is on there too! Which is not just jungly but also mountainous
+28
Level 74
Oct 12, 2018
I wonder how many of the North Korean tanks have fuel in them
+43
Level 84
Oct 12, 2018
Only the ones on parade
+21
Level 70
Oct 12, 2018
Australia has thousands of tanks ....... water tanks that is.
+8
Level 72
Aug 29, 2021
And that's not even counting tank tops.
+5
Level 87
Aug 30, 2021
And that's where the name tanks came from. Water tanks. Was used as a cover name for them in World War I. Original name was to be landships.
+1
Level 56
Jul 12, 2025
They also have spiders.
+13
Level 86
Oct 12, 2018
UK has a lot of fish tanks. Although to be honest many of them are just fish bowls.
+1
Level 56
Jul 12, 2025
The US has Shark Tanks.
+4
Level 50
Oct 13, 2018
Good quiz. Took me a moment to realise you need to focus on regional or smaller powers that have unpleasant relations with their neighbours.
+3
Level 48
Feb 22, 2020
Taiwan? Why
+3
Level 61
Oct 2, 2020
Taiwan?
+13
Level 61
Feb 21, 2021
Because of China
+2
Level 57
Apr 15, 2024
Taiwan is the Republic of China
+1
Level 34
Aug 23, 2025
No one calls it that anymore, not even Taiwanese people. Got in an Argument with someone from Taiwan when I said that Taiwan was/is the Republic of China
+7
Level 28
Feb 17, 2021
3:49

Scoring

You scored 3/15 = 20%

This beats or equals 1.5% of test takers

The average score is 12

Your high score is 3

+28
Level 78
Mar 25, 2021
What is the point of this comment
+26
Level 78
Aug 26, 2021
accountability
+1
Level 69
Aug 9, 2024
Phew, at least I did better than this guy.
+3
Level 40
May 31, 2021
Is this outdated?
+2
Level 22
Jun 26, 2021
good quiz but why you have to name you username as 'milk?'

Are actually a kind of food or a kind of a drink or is it just what you pick?

+18
Level 70
Aug 17, 2021
And your real name is 'Spongepat'?
+5
Level 78
Aug 26, 2021
The more I think about the name spongepat the more concerned I become
+4
Level 72
Aug 29, 2021
Nah, you should meet Spongezelda. Spongevlad is fun at parties but you can't leave him alone with the pots and pans.
+4
Level 80
Aug 18, 2021
Excluding Russia, no other European country has made the list, except Greece??? The country that has been heavily indebted not so long ago? Also, it isn't exactly known for its involvement in any recent wars, so what's with those numbers?
+11
Level 63
Aug 19, 2021
Supposedly the long-standing territorial dispute with Turkey is the reason.
+4
Level 73
Aug 26, 2021
And corruption/overprocurement. They have a big problem with that. German companies bribe the Greek officials to buy weapons and then glare at Greece's budget deficit.
+2
Level 67
Aug 26, 2021
NO WE DO it because turks want to invade us
+5
Level 80
Nov 10, 2021
Or that's what Rheinmetall keeps telling you :3
+1
Level 60
Aug 26, 2021
Wow, those last three. I could have had two more minutes, and I'm not sure I would have got them.
+3
Level 69
Aug 26, 2021
I love the front page description lol
+3
Level 79
Aug 26, 2021
53 seconds remaining, didn't expect to see Greece or Taiwan or Cuba, I suppose Taiwan and Cuba somewhat make sense given their history.
+5
Level 79
Apr 15, 2024
Greece was occupied by Turkey for 400 years and has fought multiple wars with it ever since. Turkey is ruled by a fascist dictator which threatens daily with invasion and is backed by an increasingly fanatic nationalist population of about 85 million.

In response, Greece spends a lot on its military and maintains a very strong navy as well as airforce, has mandatory conscription for all males and some of the best elite forces in the world.

+2
Level 41
Aug 26, 2021
Why doesn't North Vietnam work for Vietnam?
+16
Level 62
Aug 26, 2021
why would it lol
+7
Level 80
Aug 26, 2021
Same reason "West Germany" generally doesn't work when talking about present-day Germany.
+7
Level 80
Aug 26, 2021
So for counties like the Marshall Islands which don't have any tanks of their own but that rely on countries like the US to provide their international defense, I guess it's tanks but no tanks.
+6
Level 72
Aug 30, 2021
I was struggling a bit...

Until i typed in Israel and its neighbors lol

+3
Level 80
Nov 10, 2021
This really makes me wonder where Israel keeps all these tanks, it's such a tiny country.
+2
Level 90
Dec 12, 2021
Think you have a typo in the caveat
+5
Level 59
Oct 18, 2022
Surprised Monaco isn't on here
+3
Level 79
Jan 11, 2026
I wonder what % of Monaco's total land would have to be made of tank for it to make it on this list
+1
Level 75
Oct 18, 2022
That's a lot of tanks for a country the size of Cuba, especially since they don't have the navy equipped to ship them. What do they think is going to happen in their country?
+2
Level 71
Dec 7, 2022
It's obviously to counter a US invasion. I assume most of them were donated by the Soviets during the cold war, either as a response to the Bay of Pigs invasion or the later missile crisis. Likely as not, they've just been gathering dust since the USSR collapsed - dismantling them would be foolish with USA still having at best strained relations with them. In short, hostility towards USA when the USSR had a massive tank surplus and a strategic interest in the region.

This may also be the reason for Vietnam making the list in spite of not having very tank-friendly terrain.

+5
Level 89
Feb 27, 2024
As usual the US is very well-equipped to fight the last war.
+5
Level 79
Feb 27, 2024
Just missed Greece, was surprised to see Eritrea on here, only guessed it after trying Ethiopia and it wasn't one of them
+6
Level 94
Feb 28, 2024
Is this before or after the supposedly 3000+ tanks Russia has lost in the Russia-Ukraine war?
+4
Level 70
Feb 28, 2024
Tanks and armoured vehicles are different things and I think that those 3000+ losses are both exaggerated and have armoured vehciles counted. The quiz only counts tanks.
+7
Level 49
Feb 28, 2024
The actual number of FUNCTIONAL Russian tanks is widely exagerated as well...
+3
Level 59
Feb 28, 2024
Oryx has counted 2758 so it's not too far off in terms of documented losses. This doesn't include captured Ukrainian tanks however.

Source: https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html

+3
Level ∞
Jan 11, 2026
Number of Russian tanks down from 14,800 in the last update to just 5,780 today.
+2
Level 87
Feb 29, 2024
Interesting quiz. Many tanks!
+5
Level 75
Feb 29, 2024
Why does Eritrea have so many tanks? You'd expect that they could spend their funds wiser. Such as providing basic needs for their citizens.
+3
Level 74
Mar 6, 2024
potential for another war with Ethiopia
+2
Level 69
Apr 16, 2024
whoneedsethicswhenyouhavewar
+1
Level 75
Aug 15, 2024
They just fought a war alongside Ethiopia against the Tigray region
+2
Level 73
Apr 15, 2024
Wonder how many of these tanks were purchased not for defence per se, but for the percentage the generals in charge of procurement were able to skim off the top of the contract.
+1
Level 31
Apr 15, 2024
Is it slightly concerning if I got 100%?
+1
Level 88
Jan 11, 2026
No.
+1
Level 65
Apr 15, 2024
100% of people got the USA? That can't be right. I forgot it.
+1
Level 69
Aug 9, 2024
Um... Bahamas?
+2
Level 55
Nov 15, 2024
Why does Taiwan need so many tanks? They're on an island, I don't know how much action they'll get.
+6
Level 75
Feb 8, 2025
Heard of a little place called China?
+2
Level 48
Aug 3, 2025
I like, how most of the countries ranked similarly generally share a hostile border with each other. For example Morocco-Algeria, Turkey-Syria, Turkey-Greece, North Korea-South Korea, India-Pakistan etc.
+1
Level 96
Jan 11, 2026
That's what helped me finish the quiz - just think of two neighboring countries that have been at war with each other or threaten to do so.
+2
Level 42
Jan 11, 2026
I remember Eritrea was on this quiz previously. What happened to its tanks?
+2
Level 75
Jan 12, 2026
They were traded for cakes and dougnuts in order to feed its starving population.
+2
Level 75
Jan 12, 2026
Tankflation got to it
+1
Level 73
Jan 11, 2026
It makes sense, but there's a clear relation between the amount of tank a country has and its geography allowing for tank movement. Nepal or Bangladesh probably don't have a lot of tanks, but for Russia and Saudi Arabia it makes sense
+3
Level 67
Mar 11, 2026
I thought Vatican would be on the list. They already have the most halberds.
+1
Level 61
Mar 11, 2026
incredibly insightful quiz