List of countries with highest military expenditures

Military spending by country

This is a list of countries with highest military expenditures.

Highest military expenditure

The first list is based on the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) fact sheet, which includes a list of the world's top 40 military spenders as of 2024, based on current market exchange rates. ^[1]

The second list is based on the 2025 edition of The Military Balance, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) using average market exchange rates. ^[2]

40 countries with the highest military spending worldwide in 2024 [1] SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies 2025 edition of "The Military Balance" from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) [2] [3] [4] for the year 2024

Rank Country Spending (US$ bn) % of GDP % of global spending 01 United States 997.0 3.4 37.0 02 China [a] 314.0 1.7 12.0 03 Russia [a] 149.0 7.1 5.5 04 Germany 88.5 1.9 3.3 05 India 86.1 2.3 3.2 06 United Kingdom 81.8 2.3 3.0 07 Saudi Arabia [a] 80.3 7.3 3.0 08 Ukraine 64.7 34.0 2.4 09 France [b] 64.7 2.1 2.4 10 Japan 55.3 1.4 2.0 11 South Korea 47.6 2.6 1.8 12 Israel 46.5 8.8 1.7 13 Poland [b] 38.0 4.2 1.4 14 Italy 38.0 1.6 1.4 15 Australia 33.8 1.9 1.2 16 Canada 29.3 1.3 1.1 17 Turkey 25.0 1.9 1.0 18 Spain 24.6 1.4 0.9 19 Netherlands 23.2 1.9 0.7 20 Algeria 21.8 8.0 0.7 21 Brazil 20.9 1.0 0.7 22 Mexico 16.7 0.9 0.6 23 Taiwan 16.5 2.1 0.5 24 Colombia 15.1 3.4 0.5 25 Singapore 15.1 2.8 0.4 26 Sweden 12.0 2.0 0.4 27 Indonesia 11.0 0.8 0.4 28 Norway 10.4 2.1 0.4 29 Pakistan 10.2 2.7 0.4 30 Denmark 10.0 2.4 0.3 31 Romania 8.7 2.3 0.3 32 Belgium 8.6 1.3 0.3 33 Greece 8.0 3.1 0.3 34 Iran 7.9 2.0 0.3 35 Kuwait 7.8 4.8 0.3 36 Finland 7.0 2.3 0.3 37 Switzerland 6.7 0.7 0.2 38 Czechia 6.5 1.9 0.2 39 Iraq 6.2 2.4 0.2 40 Philippines 6.1 1.3 0.2

Rank Country Spending (US$ bn) 01 United States 968.0 02 China 235.0 03 Russia 145.9 04 Germany 86.0 05 United Kingdom 81.1 06 India 74.4 07 Saudi Arabia 71.7 08 France 64.0 09 Japan 53.0 10 South Korea 43.9 11 Australia 36.4 12 Italy 35.2 13 Israel 33.7 14 Ukraine 28.4 15 Poland 28.4 16 Canada 27.0 17 Brazil 24.4 18 Netherlands 23.6 19 United Arab Emirates 22.3 20 Algeria 21.4 21 Spain 19.4 22 Taiwan 18.9 23 Singapore 15.2 24 Turkey 14.3 25 Iraq 12.7 26 Sweden 12.3 27 Indonesia 10.9 28 Mexico 10.2 29 Norway 9.8 30 Qatar 9.7

Highest military expenditure, share of GDP

The following lists are of countries by military spending as a share of GDP—more specifically, a list of the 15 countries with the highest share in recent years:

The first list uses the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute as a source, while the second list gets its data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

As a share of GDP

List by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute SIPRI Military Expenditure Database (2024) [5]	List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies Top 15 Defence Budgets 2020 [6]
Rank Country % of GDP 1 Ukraine 34.48% 2 Israel 8.78% 3 Algeria 7.97% 4 Saudi Arabia 7.30% 5 Russia 7.05% 6 Myanmar 6.79% 7 Oman 5.59% 8 Armenia 5.48% 9 Azerbaijan 4.99% 10 Kuwait 4.84% 11 Jordan 4.80% 12 Burkina Faso 4.68% 13 Mali 4.20% 14 Poland 4.15% 15 Burundi 3.80% 16 Brunei 3.58% 17 Morocco 3.52% 18 United States of America 3.42% 19 Estonia 3.37% 20 Colombia 3.36% 21 Latvia 3.26% 22 Greece 3.13% 23 Lithuania 3.12% 24 Chad 2.98% 25 Kyrgyz Republic 2.97%	Rank Country % of GDP 01 Oman 12.0% 02 Afghanistan 10.6% 03 Lebanon 10.5% 04 Kuwait 7.1% 05 Saudi Arabia 7.1% 06 Algeria 6.7% 07 Iraq 5.8% 08 UAE 5.6% 09 Azerbaijan 5.4% 10 Morocco 5.3% 11 Israel 5.2% 12 Jordan 4.9% 13 Armenia 4.8% 14 Mali 4.5% 15 Qatar 4.4%
* Italic values are SIPRI estimates.

See also

• Arms industry
• Military budget
• List of countries by past military expenditure
• List of countries with highest military expenditure per capita
• List of countries by Global Militarization Index
• List of countries in Europe by military expenditures

Notes

1. SIPRI estimate
2. The figures for France and Poland exclude expenditure for National Gendarmerie and Żandarmeria Wojskowa.

References

1. "Trends in Military Expenditure 2024" (PDF). Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. April 2025. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
2. "The Military Balance 2025: Defence Spending and Procurement Trends". IISS. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
3. "Interactive: Global defence spending in 2024". IISS. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
4. "Global defence spending soars to new high". IISS. Retrieved 24 April 2025.
5. "SIPRI Military Expenditure Database". SIPRI. 28 April 2025. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
6. "IISS Military Balance 2021" . The Military Balance. 121 (1). International Institute for Strategic Studies: 23–29. January 2021. doi:10.1080/04597222.2021.1868791. S2CID   232050862. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2021.

External links

• SIPRI military expenditure database (sipri.org)