CONFLICTIQ
HEAD TO HEAD

El Salvador vs Nicaragua

El Salvador
70%
RAI
Nicaragua
30%

Verdict

El Salvador holds a 70–30 advantage over Nicaragua on the Relative Advantage Index, a decisive margin.

The margin is driven by military spending (81% of the combined total, $490m) and economic size (GDP) (64% of the combined total, $35.4bn).

1 factor — nuclear warheads — could not be scored because the figure is unpublished for at least one side. Those factors are excluded and the remaining weights renormalised, never substituted.

Factor by factor

FactorEl SalvadorShareNicaraguaWeight
Military spending
SIPRI Milex
$490m
81%19%
$116m33%
Economic size (GDP)
World Bank WDI
$35.4bn
64%36%
$19.7bn27%
Active personnel
COW NMC
25.0k
68%32%
12.0k20%
Logistics & power projection
OurAirports
5
63%38%
320%

Shares are each side's portion of the combined total for that factor. Weights are renormalised across the factors both sides publish — see the methodology. Data read 2026-08-04.

Full El Salvador dossier →Full Nicaragua dossier →Run a war game →

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Bordering states — the comparisons people actually search for.

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