Paraguay
🇵🇾Republic of Paraguay
Paraguay defense profile covering landlocked security, river corridors, organized crime, drought and flood risk, governance challenges, and source limits.
| Demographics | |
| Population, Total | 6.93M persons (2024) |
| Population Growth Rate | 1.23% (2024) |
| Urban Population Ratio | 69.86% (2024) |
| Working Age Population | 64.87% (2024) |
| Literacy Rate | 94.86% (2024) |
| Life Expectancy | 73.84 years (2023) |
| Defense | |
| Military Expenditure | 413.97M current US$ (2024) |
| Military Expenditure Ratio | 0.93 % of GDP (2024) |
| Military | |
| Military Branches | Armed Forces of Paraguay (Fuerzas Armadas de Paraguay; aka Armed Forces of the Nation or Fuerzas Armadas de la Nación): Paraguayan Army (Ejército Paraguayo), Paraguayan Navy (Armada Paraguaya; includes marines), Paraguayan Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Paraguaya) Ministry of Internal Affairs: National Police of Paraguay (Policía Nacional del Paraguay, PNP) (2025) text (2025) |
| Military Service Age | 18 years (2025) |
| Active Military Personnel | approximately 15,000 active duty Armed Forces (2025) count (2025) |
| Military Equipment Overview | the military's inventory is comprised of mostly older or obsolescent equipment from a variety of foreign suppliers, particularly Brazil and the US; in recent years, the military has received small quantities of more modern equipment, such as light attack aircraft from Brazil and secondhand helicopters from Taiwan (2025) text (2025) |
| Conscription System | 18 text (2025) |
| Economy | |
| GDP (Nominal) | 44.46B current US$ (2024) |
| GDP (PPP) | 128.35B current international $ (2024) |
| GDP Per Capita | 6,416.1 current US$ (2024) |
| GDP Growth Rate | 4.25% (2024) |
| Inflation Rate | 3.84% (2024) |
| Foreign Reserves | 9.89B current US$ (2023) |
| Trade Balance | -1.08B current US$ (2024) |
| Industry | |
| Manufacturing Value Added | 8.46B current US$ (2024) |
| Industry GDP Ratio | 32.48 % of GDP (2024) |
| Manufacturing GDP Ratio | 19.02 % of GDP (2024) |
| Natural Resources | hydropower, timber, iron ore, manganese, limestone text |
| Technology | |
| R&D Spending Ratio | 0.12 % of GDP (2022) |
| Researchers Per Million | 133.2 per million (2022) |
| Patent Applications | 10 applications (2021) |
| High-Tech Exports | 185.60M current US$ (2024) |
| Internet Penetration | 81.58% (2024) |
| Infrastructure | |
| Air Transport Passengers | 407,865 passengers (2023) |
| Electricity Access | 99.80% (2023) |
| Logistics Performance Index | 2.7 index 1-5 (2022) |
| Total Area | 406,752 km² |
| Land Area | 397,302 km² |
| Water Area | 9,450 km² |
| Land Boundaries | 4,655 km |
| Coastline | 0 km |
| Railway Length | 30 km (2014) |
| Irrigated Land | 1,362 km² (2012) |
| Merchant Marine | 108 count (2023) |
| Electricity Capacity | 8.93 kW (2023) |
| Electricity - Hydroelectric | 99.40% (2023) |
| Electricity Consumption | 14.84 kWh (2023) |
| Other Statistics | |
| Terrain | grassy plains and wooded hills east of Rio Paraguay; Gran Chaco region west of Rio Paraguay mostly low, marshy plain near the river, and dry forest and thorny scrub elsewhere text |
| Climate | subtropical to temperate; substantial rainfall in the eastern portions, becoming semiarid in the far west text |
| Natural Hazards | local flooding in southeast (early September to June); poorly drained plains may become boggy (early October to June) text |
| Government Type | presidential republic text |
| Capital | Asunción text |
| Legal System | civil law system with influences from Argentine, Spanish, Roman, and French civil law models; Supreme Court of Justice reviews legislative acts text |
| Administrative Divisions | 17 text |
| Internet Country Code | .py text |
Paraguay's security profile centers on river corridors, border zones, agriculture, and hydroelectric infrastructure.
Paraguay's landlocked geography makes river transport, border crossings, and regional corridors essential to trade and national security.
Its defense profile should be read through internal security, border enforcement, and infrastructure resilience rather than through conventional power projection.
Governance challenges shape the effectiveness of police, courts, and security forces.
Paraguay faces persistent corruption and institutional-capacity concerns that affect public trust in policing, courts, and border enforcement.
When security agencies face weak oversight, organized crime and smuggling networks can exploit gaps between formal state authority and real local control.
Transnational crime and porous border zones are central to Paraguay's security risk.
Paraguay's borders with Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia create operational challenges around smuggling, trafficking, illicit finance, and rural security.
These risks require coordination among customs, police, military support roles, and neighboring states, especially along river and frontier zones.
Extreme climate events affect agriculture, hydropower, poverty reduction, and local stability.
Paraguay is vulnerable to droughts and floods that disrupt agriculture, transport, energy, and rural livelihoods.
Climate resilience is therefore a security concern because repeated shocks can undermine poverty reduction, increase social stress, and reduce state capacity.
Paraguay's security value lies in river corridors, border enforcement, and resilience to climate shocks.
Paraguay is strategically relevant because its rivers and borders are the infrastructure of the state. Trade, energy, border enforcement, and illicit flows all pass through geography that is hard to monitor fully.
Paraguay represents a governance-heavy security case in which institutional integrity and river management are central to resilience.
Paraguay's security is shaped by border governance, organized crime, climate shocks, and river infrastructure.
Paraguay faces significant vulnerabilities related to climate, development conditions, and governance challenges. Detailed public information on current military deployments and sensitive organized-crime investigations is scarce.
Paraguay is a landlocked security context where riverine corridors, border enforcement, and climate resilience are central risk factors.
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