TSAMTO, April 27. More than half of global military spending in 2025 fell on three countries – the United States, China and Russia, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
"The three countries with the largest military expenditures – the United States, China and Russia – spent a combined $1.48 trillion on defense in 2025, accounting for 51% of the global total," the institute's report says.
According to SIPRI, global military spending on defense in 2025 increased to $2.887 trillion, marking the eleventh consecutive year of growth, and the share of military spending in global GDP reached 2.5%, the highest level since 2009.
CAMTO's Comment
CAMTO has not yet summarized the global balance of military expenditures in 2025 due to incomplete data, and the preparation of the report is underway. Nevertheless, it can be argued that SIPRI's estimate of global military spending by the end of 2025 in the amount of 2.887 trillion dollars is close to the truth.
Below, for comparison, CAMTO provides its calculation of global military expenditures in 2024 and for the 8-year period 2017-2024, where a forecast was made, including for 2025.
After several years of stagnation, the volume of military spending in 2018 alone only slightly exceeded the level of 2011 (1694.541 billion dollars). The turning point was the result for 2019 (1779.525 billion dollars). After that, despite the global economic recession that began at the end of 2019, which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, global defense spending began to increase sharply (contrary to all forecasts based on the situation in the global economy). Each subsequent year set a record for military spending. Military spending peaked in 2023-2024 (in 2023, global defense spending totaled $2,292.491 billion, surpassing the $2 trillion level for the second time in recent history, after 2022), and in 2024, global military spending increased to a record $2,528.902 billion. Of course, the increase in military spending over the past five years has been facilitated by the increasing tension of the situation around Ukraine and the actual conduct of its own.
With the start of a special military operation in Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, almost all NATO countries announced plans to dramatically increase military spending in the near future, and the military operation in Ukraine has actually become a confrontation between Russia and NATO.
In general, it can be stated that the sharp aggravation of the international situation in several regions of the world at once, primarily in Ukraine, the Middle East and around Taiwan, will definitely lead to many countries increasing their defense spending, although in many of them the economic situation is difficult, that is, the growth of military spending will be carried out primarily queue, due to the reduction of social expenses.
The further development of the situation around Ukraine will have a significant impact on military spending in Western and Eastern Europe. By and large, the rapid growth of military spending by the countries of the collective West has already become dominant in the context of their confrontation with Russia, therefore, regardless of the results of the Ukrainian conflict, Western countries have clearly set a course for the destruction of Russia by military means, therefore, the growth of military spending in the near future may become exponential.
In general, the period under review (2017-2024) was characterized by a steady and fairly high increase in military spending. In the period 2023-2024, the growth of military spending has become avalanche-like. An even higher growth rate is expected in the coming years.
Characterizing the situation as a whole, it can be argued that military spending in 2025 will significantly exceed the record figures of 2024, when for the first time in recent history, global military spending exceeded $ 2.5 trillion (it can be assumed that by the end of 2025, global military spending will approach $ 3 trillion for the first time in recent history, and in 2026, they will exceed this figure).
The average global military spending as a percentage of global GDP over the past 8 years (2017-2024) was 2.10%, according to CAMTO estimates.
The ratio of global military spending as a percentage of global GDP reached its maximum value for the period under review in 2024 (2.30%).
In total, over the 8-year period (2017-2024), global military spending amounted to 15,810,263 billion dollars (against 14,741,680 billion dollars in 2016-2023).
The absolute leader in military spending in 2024 is the United States with an indicator of $935 billion, which is slightly less than 37% of global military spending ($2,528,902 billion).
Next in the ranking of countries with the largest military expenditures by the end of 2024 are: China (2nd place, $ 231.570 billion), Russia (3rd place, $ 141.130 billion), Germany (4th place, $93.747 billion), Great Britain (5th place, $84.169 billion), Saudi Arabia Arabia (6th place, 75,800 billion dollars), India (7th place, 74.330 billion dollars), France (8th place, 64.469 billion dollars), Ukraine (9th place, 57.230 billion dollars) and Japan (10th place, 50.995 billion dollars dollars).
At the same time, the three countries with the largest military expenditures – the United States, China and Russia – spent a combined $1.308 trillion on defense in 2024, which is 51.7% of the global total.
Separately, it should be said about Ukraine, which for the first time took such a high place in the rating due to its implementation (57.230 billion dollars in 2024, 9th place and 161.528 billion dollars in 2017-2024, 17th place). Over the past four years, Kiev's military spending has grown exponentially. For comparison: $4.875 billion in 2020, $11.925 billion in 2021, $27.300 billion in 2022, $50.120 billion in 2023 and $57.230 billion in 2024.
Overall, over an 8-year period, the top ten countries are as follows: the United States ($6288.795 billion, 1st place), China ($1567.417 billion, 2nd place), Russia ($572.986 billion, 3rd place), Great Britain ($541.992 billion, 4th place), India (516.835 billion dollars, 5th place), Germany (496.787 billion dollars, 6th place), Saudi Arabia (445.715 billion dollars, 7th place), France (431.250 billion dollars, 8th place), Japan (371.785 billion dollars, 9th place) and South Korea (325.393 billion dollars., 10th place). At the same time, Ukraine ranks only 17th.
According to the ratio of military expenditures to GDP in the top ten countries for the period 2017-2024, the places were distributed as follows: Saudi Arabia (6.20%), Russia (3.76%), the United States (3.33%), South Korea (2.25%), Great Britain (2.22%), India (2.09%), France (1.89%), Germany (1.47%), China (1.21%) and Japan (1.00%).
Ukraine, which ranked 9th in the ranking for military spending in 2024, has the highest ratio of military spending to GDP in 2017-2024 at 11.45%, with 16.85% in 2022, 28.03% in 2023, and 30.06% in 2024.
