World Map of Peace
World military expenditure
The countries of the world spent 2,887 billion US dollars on their militaries in 2025, according to SIPRI, more than ever before in its database. Who spends how much, how the total has developed since 2008 and how it compares with spending on peace
Key points at a glance
- World military expenditure reached 2,887 billion US dollars in 2025, according to the SIPRI report of April 2026. That is 2.9 percent more than the year before in real terms, the eleventh consecutive increase.
- The five countries with the highest spending are the United States, China, Russia, Germany and India. Together they account for 58 percent of world military expenditure.
- On average, around 2.5 percent of global economic output went to the military in 2025, the highest share since 2009.
- In June 2025 in The Hague, the NATO states agreed on a new target: 5 percent of economic output by 2035, of which at least 3.5 percent for core defence.
In numbers
2,887 bn
US dollars of military expenditure in 2025
worldwide, according to SIPRI
2.5%
of global economic output
the highest share since 2009
80%
is spent by 15 states
together 2,304 billion US dollars
- 20081,852
- 20102,016
- 20131,948
- 20161,962
- 20182,045
- 20202,210
- 20222,299
- 20232,453
- 20242,692
- 20252,771
2008
- United States
- 4.4 percent
- China
- 1.7 percent
- Russia
- 3.1 percent
- Germany
- 1.2 percent
2025
- United States
- 3.1 percent
- China
- 1.7 percent
- Russia
- 7.5 percent
- Germany
- 2.3 percent
- World military expenditure 20252,887 bn US dollars
- Official development assistance of OECD donor countries 2025174.3 bn US dollars
- UN peacekeeping budget 2026/27around 5.1 bn US dollars
- Data basis
- SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, as of 27 April 2026
- Publisher
- Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Solna
- Reporting year
- 2025, in current US dollars
- How to read it
- Changes are in real terms, adjusted for inflation
- Author
- Johannes Max Harms
How high is world military expenditure?
World military expenditure reached 2,887 billion US dollars in 2025, according to the SIPRI report of April 2026. That is the highest figure the Stockholm peace research institute has ever recorded, and the eleventh consecutive increase. In real terms, that is adjusted for inflation, spending grew by 2.9 percent. The year before, the increase had been 9.7 percent.
Per person worldwide, that is 352 US dollars a year. On average, states spent 6.9 percent of their budgets on the military. Without the United States, whose spending fell in 2025, the world total would have risen by 9.2 percent.
By region, the Americas came first with 1,065 billion US dollars, followed by Europe with 864 billion and Asia and Oceania with 681 billion. Europe spent 14 percent more than the year before and more than ever before in the database. In 2025 spending rose in every world region except the Americas.
Which countries spend the most on their militaries?
The United States leads with 954 billion US dollars, followed by China with an estimated 336 billion and Russia with an estimated 190 billion. In fourth and fifth place come Germany with 114 billion and India with 92.1 billion. The table below shows the 15 countries with the highest spending according to SIPRI.
Spending is highly concentrated. The five largest countries together account for 58 percent of the world total, the ten largest for 72 percent and the 15 largest for 80 percent. All other states share the remaining 20 percent.
Twelve of the 15 countries increased their spending in 2025; only the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel spent less. The largest increases within this group were in Spain with 50 percent, Germany with 24 percent and Poland with 23 percent. There are also states that manage entirely without an army of their own. They do not appear in this ranking.
How has spending developed since 2008?
At 2024 prices, world military expenditure stood at 1,852 billion US dollars in 2008 and 2,771 billion in 2025. That is a real increase of around 50 percent in 17 years. The first chart above shows the series in selected years.
The trend was not even. After rising until 2010, spending fell slightly until 2014. Since 2015 it has risen every year, especially strongly since 2023. In 2024 alone it grew by 9.7 percent in real terms.
The weights have shifted too. Between 2016 and 2025, military expenditure in Europe doubled and its share of the world total rose by 11 percentage points. The share of the Americas fell by 5.5 percentage points over the same period. The Global Peace Index counts military expenditure among the indicators it uses to assess a country’s peacefulness.
What share of economic output goes to the military?
Worldwide, military expenditure in 2025 equalled 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, according to SIPRI, up from 2.4 percent the year before. That is the highest share since 2009. SIPRI calls this measure a country’s military burden, because it shows how much of its economic strength a state devotes to the military.
There are large differences between regions. On average, the share in 2025 was 3.8 percent in the Middle East, 3.2 percent in Europe, 1.8 percent in Africa, 1.6 percent in Asia and Oceania and 1.2 percent in the Americas.
The highest shares were in Ukraine with an estimated 40 percent, Algeria with 8.8 percent and Israel with 7.8 percent. A high amount does not automatically mean a high share: the United States spends by far the most, but at 3.1 percent of GDP it is well behind these countries. China reaches an estimated 1.7 percent.
What does the NATO target of 5 percent mean?
At their summit in The Hague on 25 June 2025, the NATO heads of state and government agreed to spend 5 percent of their economic output annually on defence and security by 2035. Of this, at least 3.5 percent is to go to core defence and up to 1.5 percent to related areas such as protecting critical infrastructure, civil preparedness and the defence industry. The previous target of 2 percent dates from 2014.
The summit declaration provides for each member to submit an annual plan and for the balance to be reviewed in 2029. Contributions to the defence of Ukraine are counted. According to NATO estimates of July 2026, core defence expenditure of all members stood at 2.75 percent of economic output in 2025, and the alliance expects 2.86 percent for 2026.
Using its own method, SIPRI arrives at 1,581 billion US dollars for the 32 members, which is 55 percent of world military expenditure. 23 of them were at 2 percent or more in 2025. SIPRI points out that NATO figures and its own differ considerably in some cases and that the boundaries of the new category are not yet clearly defined. Not all European states belong to the alliance; some are permanently neutral.
How much do states spend on peacebuilding by comparison?
For United Nations peacekeeping, the General Assembly approved a budget of around 5.1 billion US dollars for July 2026 to June 2027, about 10 percent less than the year before. For 2025/26 it was 5.38 billion US dollars for twelve missions. Both amounts are smaller than what the countries of the world spent on their militaries on a single average day in 2025.
Official development assistance from OECD donor countries amounted to 174.3 billion US dollars in 2025, according to preliminary figures, or 0.26 percent of their national income. It fell by 23.1 percent in real terms, the largest decline ever recorded. In 2025 Germany was the largest donor for the first time. Development assistance is broader than peacebuilding and also covers areas such as health and education.
The peace index of the Institute for Economics and Peace puts spending on peacebuilding and peacekeeping in 2025 at 49.2 billion US dollars, or 0.5 percent of military expenditure. However, it calculates in purchasing power parity and with its own cost model, in which military expenditure including follow-on costs such as veterans’ affairs reaches 9.5 trillion US dollars. That total therefore cannot be compared directly with SIPRI’s 2,887 billion. Why wars break out in the first place is explained on the page Why is there war?. This page gives the figures from SIPRI, NATO, the UN and the OECD and will be updated with the next edition.
SIPRI Fact Sheet, April 2026
Global military expenditure is highly concentrated among a relatively small group of states: the top 15 spenders accounted for $2304 billion or 80 per cent of world military spending in 2025.
Sources
- SIPRI: Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2025 (PDF)
- SIPRI: Military Expenditure Database
- NATO: The Hague Summit Declaration, 25 June 2025
- NATO: Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2026)
- United Nations: peacekeeping budget 2026/27
- OECD: preliminary official development assistance levels in 2025
- Institute for Economics and Peace: Global Peace Index 2026 (PDF)
The 15 countries with the highest military expenditure in 2025
| Rank | Country | Billion US dollars | Change from previous year | Share of GDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 954 | −7.5% | 3.1% |
| 2 | China | 336* | +7.4% | 1.7%* |
| 3 | Russia | 190* | +5.9% | 7.5%* |
| 4 | Germany | 114 | +24% | 2.3% |
| 5 | India | 92.1 | +8.9% | 2.3% |
| 6 | United Kingdom | 89.0 | −2.0% | 2.4% |
| 7 | Ukraine | 84.1* | +20% | 40%* |
| 8 | Saudi Arabia | 83.2* | +1.4% | 6.5%* |
| 9 | France | 68.0 | +1.5% | 2.0% |
| 10 | Japan | 62.2 | +9.7% | 1.4% |
| 11 | Israel | 48.3 | −4.9% | 7.8% |
| 12 | Italy | 48.1 | +20% | 1.9% |
| 13 | South Korea | 47.8 | +2.6% | 2.6% |
| 14 | Poland | 46.8 | +23% | 4.5% |
| 15 | Spain | 40.2 | +50% | 2.1% |
Source: SIPRI Fact Sheet “Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2025”, April 2026, table 1. Spending in current US dollars, change in real terms compared with 2024. An asterisk marks SIPRI estimates.
More in this series
- Countries without an armyConstitutions, treaties and Barbey 2020Around twenty states in the world have no army of their own. Some abolished it, others never founded one, and each arranges its security in its own way
- Global Peace IndexGlobal Peace Index 2026, methodology sectionEvery year the Global Peace Index ranks 163 states by how peaceful they are. If you want to read the ranking, it helps to know how it is calculated
More questions about military expenditure
How high is US military spending?
According to SIPRI, the United States spent 954 billion US dollars on its military in 2025. That is around a third of world military expenditure and equals 3.1 percent of US economic output. Compared with 2024, the amount fell by 7.5 percent in real terms, but it was still 11 percent above the 2016 level.
SIPRI attributes the decline mainly to the fact that in 2025 no supplemental funding for military assistance abroad was approved, as had been added in previous years. This has narrowed the gap to the next largest spender: in 2025 the United States spent 2.8 times as much as China, down from 3.2 times in 2024.
How much does China spend on its military?
SIPRI estimates Chinese military expenditure in 2025 at 336 billion US dollars. China therefore ranks second and accounts for 12 percent of world spending. Measured against economic output, this is an estimated 1.7 percent, the same as the average for the years 2016 to 2024.
Spending rose by 7.4 percent in real terms in 2025 and by 62 percent since 2016. According to SIPRI, China has increased its military expenditure for 31 consecutive years, the longest streak of any country in the database. SIPRI marks the figure as an estimate.
How high is Russia’s military spending?
For Russia, SIPRI estimates military expenditure in 2025 at 190 billion US dollars, third place worldwide. That is an estimated 7.5 percent of economic output and 20 percent of all government spending, the highest share SIPRI has ever recorded for Russia. In real terms, spending rose by 5.9 percent, the slowest growth since 2022.
The figure is an estimate. According to SIPRI, the budget is also becoming less transparent: the classified part of the national defence budget grew from an estimated 73 percent in 2024 to around 79 percent in 2025.
Where does Germany stand in defence spending?
According to SIPRI, Germany ranked fourth in the world in 2025 with 114 billion US dollars, behind the United States, China and Russia. Spending rose by 24 percent in real terms, the third year in a row of double-digit growth. At 2.3 percent of economic output, the share exceeded 2 percent for the first time since 1990.
NATO uses its own method and estimates the German share at 2.22 percent for 2025 and 2.69 percent for 2026. The federal government has pledged to reach 3.5 percent by 2029. Since 2025, military spending above 1 percent of economic output has been exempt from the debt brake. The budget, the special fund and the series since 2008 are on the page Germany’s military spending.
Is global arms spending the same as military expenditure?
In everyday language the two terms are often used interchangeably. SIPRI’s statistics refer to military expenditure and count more than the purchase of weapons: salaries and pensions of military personnel, operation and maintenance of the armed forces, procurement, military research, military aid to other states and peacekeeping forces.
According to the SIPRI definition, civil defence, veterans’ benefits and the costs of past military activities, for example, are not included. Anyone who only means the purchase of weapons is therefore looking at one part of military expenditure, not the whole total.
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