SEOUL, December 12 (AJP) -South Korea ranked as the world’s seventh-most powerful country in 2025, surpassing European heavyweights such as France and Italy, according to the latest CEOWORLD Magazine assessment — a result that highlights the country’s expanding influence, increasingly driven by soft power alongside industrial and strategic strength.
The 2025 ranking underscores a central reality of global order: a small group of states continues to set the pace for politics, markets and security. The United States retained the top position with a score of 95.36, followed closely by China (94.86) and Russia (94.81). India (94.76), the United Kingdom (94.56) and Japan (94.31) completed an intensely competitive top six.
South Korea placed seventh with a score of 94.18, edging out France (93.55), Italy (93.30) and Turkey (93.30), while Germany ranked lower at 90.40. The clustering of scores reflects how advanced industrial capacity, alliance networks and regional leadership increasingly translate into durable global influence.
CEOWORLD’s framework defines “power” not narrowly as military might, but as the capacity to shape global economic and political outcomes across seven attributes: political stability, economic influence, defense budget, weaponry, global alliances, soft power and military strength.
Political stability provides regulatory continuity and contract security — prerequisites for long-horizon investment. Economic influence reflects a country’s weight in trade, finance and global demand. Defense budgets and weaponry measure the resources underpinning deterrence and force projection, while global alliances capture a state’s ability to multiply influence through collective security and shared rules.
Soft power — cultural reach, education, values and national brand — has emerged as a decisive differentiator, particularly for countries without overwhelming military scale. Military strength, meanwhile, assesses operational readiness, logistics and the ability to sustain deployments rather than headline spending alone.
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