Military Expenditure by Country: Data Guide

What it is

Tracking military expenditure by country is a foundational task in international security research, defense economics, and strategic policy analysis. Rather than relying on disparate national defense statements, researchers utilize standardized global statistical platforms to measure and compare defense allocations over time. The premier international authority and canonical benchmark for this research is the Military Expenditure Database maintained by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), hosted at sipri.org/databases/milex.

SIPRI defines military expenditure as all current and capital spending on armed forces and defense activities across a nation. This comprehensive perimeter encompasses military personnel compensation and pensions, operational maintenance, weapons procurement, defense infrastructure construction, foreign military aid, and defense-specific research and development, such as activities funded under United States RDT&E funding programs. By applying a consistent, open-source methodology across sovereign nations, the database enables rigorous cross-national comparisons that transcend variations in national budgetary accounting.

Who runs it and what it covers

The database is operated by the Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an independent international research institute founded in 1966 and based in Solna, Sweden. SIPRI calculates all expenditure estimates using strictly publicly accessible open sources, including official government budget documents, parliamentary defense reports, central bank statistical bulletins, and international economic questionnaires.

The database covers over 170 sovereign states and regional groupings, offering continuous time series data spanning from 1949 to the present. To accommodate diverse analytical methodologies, SIPRI publishes national defense spending through six core statistical metrics:

Local Currency in Current Prices: Nominal defense expenditures expressed in each nation’s domestic currency, reflecting internal budget appropriations.
Current US Dollars: Defense outlays converted into United States dollars using annual average market exchange rates.
Constant US Dollars (Real Terms): Figures adjusted for domestic inflation and converted to a constant base year, enabling valid historical trend analysis without currency depreciation distortions.
Share of Gross Domestic Product (Military Burden): The proportion of a nation’s total economic output dedicated to defense, providing a standardized gauge of economic commitment regardless of absolute population size.
Share of General Government Expenditure: The percentage of total national public spending directed to military purposes, illustrating domestic fiscal priorities.
Per Capita Expenditure: Annual military spending divided by total population, measuring individual defense burden.

According to the SIPRI Fact Sheet published in April 2024 (Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2023), total global military expenditure reached $2,443 billion in 2023, representing an increase of 6.8 percent in real terms over 2022 and accounting for 2.3 percent of world gross domestic product. The top five spenders—the United States ($916 billion), China (estimated $296 billion), Russia (estimated $109 billion), India ($83.6 billion), and Saudi Arabia ($75.8 billion)—accounted for 61 percent of global spending.

How to search or use it

Researchers investigating national defense spending can query, filter, and extract data from the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database by following these operational steps:

Access the online repository: Navigate to the official SIPRI database interface at sipri.org/databases/milex or download the complete open-access spreadsheet package.
Select analytical data series: Choose the primary metric required for your research question: nominal current USD for immediate snapshot comparisons, constant USD for longitudinal trend analyses, or share of GDP for structural burden assessments.
Filter by geographic entities: Select individual nations, regional aggregates (such as NATO Europe, East Asia, or the Middle East), or multilateral groupings using the country selector checklist.
Specify temporal range: Define the historical timeframe of interest, utilizing continuous time series data available from 1949 to recent reporting years.
Examine country footnotes: Review specific country notation symbols (such as estimates, data breaks, or revisions) to identify whether paramilitary forces, military pensions, or off-budget defense funds are included in a given nation’s total.
Export statistical datasets: Download filtered results in CSV or Excel formats for downstream statistical modeling, econometrics, or policy briefs. When incorporating findings into academic literature or defense reporting, cross-reference data sources alongside defense technical repositories like DTIC or export compliance frameworks under ITAR regulations.

Strengths and limits

Understanding the strengths and methodological boundaries of global military spending datasets ensures accurate analytical interpretation:

Strengths:

Methodological consistency: Applies a standardized definition of military expenditure across countries with vastly different public accounting formats.
Open-source transparency: Relies exclusively on verifiable public records, enabling full reproducibility without reliance on classified estimates.
Historical depth: Continuous longitudinal data extending back over seven decades, providing unparalleled insight into defense spending cycles.
Integrated economic indicators: Standardizes figures against GDP and general government spending to evaluate societal military burden.

Limits:

Exchange rate distortions: Market exchange rate conversions to USD can undervalue defense spending in countries with lower domestic labor and production costs, such as China or Russia, where purchasing power parity (PPP) provides alternative perspectives.
Data transparency gaps: Nations with opaque budget systems, off-budget procurement funds, or state-owned defense conglomerates require statistical estimation by SIPRI analysts.
Lagged reporting schedules: Comprehensive global annual datasets are typically published in April of the following calendar year, reflecting the time required to collect and reconcile national audit reports.

Alternatives

In addition to SIPRI, several intergovernmental bodies and defense research institutes publish complementary datasets on military spending and defense resources:

Database / Organization	Publishing Entity	Methodological Scope	Key Advantage	Primary Research Use Case
SIPRI Military Expenditure	Stockholm International Peace Research Institute	Global coverage (170+ states); standardized open-source perimeter	Unmatched historical depth and global comparability	Cross-national longitudinal security and defense economic studies
NATO Defence Expenditures	North Atlantic Treaty Organization	32 NATO Allied nations; formal alliance definition	Standardized tracking against NATO’s 2 percent GDP defense guideline	Alliance burden-sharing assessments and equipment spending metrics
IISS The Military Balance	International Institute for Strategic Studies	Global defense budgets, force structures, and equipment inventories	Integrates financial expenditures with physical weapons holdings	Correlating military expenditures with operational military hardware
IMF Government Finance Statistics	International Monetary Fund	Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG) defense code	Harmonized with broader macroeconomic public finance series	Fiscal policy analysis and public expenditure reviews

Frequently asked questions

What country spends the most on military as a percentage of GDP?

In 2023, Ukraine recorded the highest military burden in the world, with military expenditure reaching an estimated 37 percent of its GDP due to the full-scale Russian invasion. Among nations not engaged in major defensive warfare, countries in the Middle East consistently report high military burdens, with Saudi Arabia spending an estimated 7.1 percent of GDP on defense in 2023 according to SIPRI data.

What is the United States military spending per capita?

Based on 2023 SIPRI data, total United States military expenditure was $916 billion for a population of roughly 335 million, resulting in a defense expenditure of approximately $2,730 per capita. This represents the highest per capita defense expenditure among major world economies.

What percentage of GDP does the U.S. spend on its military?

According to SIPRI’s 2023 fact sheet, United States military expenditure represented approximately 3.4 percent of its gross domestic product. While down from Cold War peaks exceeding 6 to 9 percent of GDP, this allocation remains substantially above the NATO 2 percent guideline and accounts for 37 percent of total global military spending.

Why do military expenditure figures differ between SIPRI and NATO?

Figures differ because SIPRI and NATO utilize slightly different accounting criteria. NATO includes all armed forces personnel pensions and contributions to collective alliance infrastructure, but excludes civil defense and non-deployable gendarmerie forces. SIPRI includes paramilitary forces when equipped for military operations and incorporates distinct estimates for foreign military assistance, resulting in minor variances between reported totals.

Sources

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). “Military Expenditure Database: Methodology and Sources.” Official platform: sipri.org/databases/milex. Read 2026-11-07.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). “Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2023.” SIPRI Fact Sheet (April 2024). sipri.org. Read 2026-11-07.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). “Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2024).” nato.int. Read 2026-11-07.
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). “The Military Balance: Methodological Notes on Defence Budgets.” iiss.org. Read 2026-11-07.