The United States led the ranking of the countries with the highest military spending in 2024, with 997 billion U.S. dollars dedicated to the military. That constituted almost 40 percent of the total military spending worldwide that year, which amounted to 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars. This amounted to 3.4 percent of the U.S.'s gross domestic product (GDP), placing the country lower in the ranking of military expenditure as a percentage of GDP, compared to Ukraine, Israel, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. China was the second largest military spender, with an estimated 314 billion U.S. dollars spent, with Russia following in third. Defense budgetAccording to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, the outlays for defense will rise to 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars by 2033. The largest parts of the budget are dedicated to the Departments of the Navy and the Air Force. The budget for the U.S. Air Force for 2024 was nearly 260 billion U.S. dollars.Global military spendingThe value of military spending globally has grown steadily in the past years and reached 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars in 2024. Reasons for this are the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, the war in Gaza, as well as increasing tensions in the South China Sea. North America is by far the leading region worldwide in terms of expenditure on the military.

From the website: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/DHMZOW

The world has become much more peaceful, and yet, even after adjusting for inflation, global military spending is now three times greater than at the height of the Cold War. These developments have motivated a renewed interest from both policy makers and scholars about the drivers of military spending and the implications that follow. Existing findings on the relationship between threat and arming and arms races and war hinge on the completeness and accuracy of existing military spending data. Moreover, data on military spending is used to measure important concepts from international relations such as the distribution of power, balancing, the severity of states’ military burdens, and arms races. Everything we know about which states are most powerful, whether nations are balancing, and whether military burdens and arms races are growing more or less severe rests on the accuracy of existing military spending estimates.

Data is plural description: Global military spending. How much money has each country spent, each year, on its military? Different datasets have different answers, cover different timeframes, and use different methodologies. Miriam Barnum et al.’s Global Military Spending Dataset attempts to bring them together. By uniting “76 variables from 9 dataset collection projects,” the authors write, “we provide the most comprehensive and complete set of published datasets on military spending ever assembled.” Each of the variables represents one source/methodology, and each observation is a country-year. “Disagreement on the actual expenditure value for a given country-year is common, even between datasets produced by the same project,” they find. Previously: The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s Military Expenditure Database (DIP 2017.03.29), one of the sources.

In 2024, the military spending of the United States accounted for 37 percent of the total military spending worldwide. In total, the expenditure on the military worldwide was assessed at 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars.

Military expenditure (% of GDP) in United States was reported at 3.3618 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United States - Military expenditure (% of GDP) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on October of 2025.

In 2024, the military spending worldwide amounted to 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars, which was the highest during the period under consideration. Comparatively, global military spending was at 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2001 and at 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars in 2010, past the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Russia-Ukraine War The Russia-Ukraine War has been a major driver of more recent military spending increases. From 2021 to 2022, the ratio of Ukraine’s military spending to their GDP increased substantially from 3.8 percent to 33.5 percent, reaching 36 percent in 2023. By comparison, this ratio increased in Russia from 3.6 percent in 2021 to only 4 percent in 2022. As a result, large amounts of bilateral aid have gone towards Ukraine. While EU institutions have contributed the most financial and humanitarian aid, the United States has contributed the most military aid towards Ukraine. Spending by nation Globally, the United States had the largest amount of military spending by large in 2024. The United States spent 997 billion U.S. dollars in 2024 towards defense, compared to 314 billion U.S. dollars and 149 billion U.S. dollars spent by China and Russia, respectively. As a percentage of GDP, Ukraine spent the most globally, contributing nearly 35 percent of their GDP to defense, followed by Israel at 8.8 percent and Algeria at eight percent.

United States US: Military Expenditure: % of GDP data was reported at 3.149 % in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 3.222 % for 2016. United States US: Military Expenditure: % of GDP data is updated yearly, averaging 4.864 % from Sep 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 9.063 % in 1967 and a record low of 2.908 % in 1999. United States US: Military Expenditure: % of GDP data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Defense and Official Development Assistance. Military expenditures data from SIPRI are derived from the NATO definition, which includes all current and capital expenditures on the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces; defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects; paramilitary forces, if these are judged to be trained and equipped for military operations; and military space activities. Such expenditures include military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions of military personnel and social services for personnel; operation and maintenance; procurement; military research and development; and military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country). Excluded are civil defense and current expenditures for previous military activities, such as for veterans' benefits, demobilization, conversion, and destruction of weapons. This definition cannot be applied for all countries, however, since that would require much more detailed information than is available about what is included in military budgets and off-budget military expenditure items. (For example, military budgets might or might not cover civil defense, reserves and auxiliary forces, police and paramilitary forces, dual-purpose forces such as military and civilian police, military grants in kind, pensions for military personnel, and social security contributions paid by one part of government to another.); ; Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Yearbook: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security.; Weighted average; Data for some countries are based on partial or uncertain data or rough estimates.

Of the world's 40 largest military spenders in 2024, Ukraine saw the largest increase over the last 10 years, their military spending increasing by 1,250 percent. This is explained by the Russian invasion of the country in 2022. Behind Ukraine, Poland saw the largest increase in spending at about 160 percent, with Denmark following in third.

Historical dataset showing Isle of Man military spending/defense budget by year from N/A to N/A.

Military Expenditure in the United States increased to 997309 USD Million in 2024 from 916014.70 USD Million in 2023. United States Military Expenditure - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

Military Expenditure in Georgia increased to 615.90 USD Million in 2024 from 508.40 USD Million in 2023. Georgia Military Expenditure - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

View yearly updates and historical trends for US Government Defense Spending. from United States. Source: Office of Management and Budget. Track economic …

Military Expenditure in Hungary increased to 4734.70 USD Million in 2024 from 4355.50 USD Million in 2023. Hungary Military Expenditure - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

In 2023, the United States spent around 916.02 billion U.S. dollars on its military. U.S. military spending has been increasing in current dollar terms since 2016. Spending increased dramatically in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the first year of the war, the U.S. had contributed more than 40 billion euros worth of military aid to Ukraine. What military spending entails Military spending in the United States is the part of the national outlays of the Department of Defense. While the department has over two trillion dollars in budgetary resources, its outlays - money actually paid out - are significantly lower. This budget is designated for the four branches of the United States military, and is used for everything from salaries, trainings, development of new military technologies, and new aircraft and weaponry. The high cost of U.S. spending The United States is well known for spending more on its military than any other country. In 2023, it was estimated that per capita defense spending amounted to 2,220 U.S. dollars. While this figure is extremely high, many Americans may find it worthwhile, as a majority believe the United States to be the number one military power in the world.

Military Expenditure in the United Kingdom increased to 81763.20 USD Million in 2024 from 75303.40 USD Million in 2023. United Kingdom Military Expenditure - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

Military Expenditure in China increased to 313658.30 USD Million in 2024 from 296821.40 USD Million in 2023. China Military Expenditure - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

Military Expenditure in Russia increased to 148967.30 USD Million in 2024 from 109203.60 USD Million in 2023. Russia Military Expenditure - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

Military Expenditure in Azerbaijan increased to 3777.10 USD Million in 2024 from 3561.70 USD Million in 2023. Azerbaijan Military Expenditure - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

Military Expenditure in Panama remained unchanged at 0 USD Million in 2024 from 0 USD Million in 2023. This dataset provides - Panama Military Expenditure- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Georgia: Military spending, in billion U.S. dollars: The latest value from 2022 is 0.36 billion U.S. dollars, an increase from 0.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. In comparison, the world average is 14.63 billion U.S. dollars, based on data from 150 countries. Historically, the average for Georgia from 1996 to 2022 is 0.31 billion U.S. dollars. The minimum value, 0.02 billion U.S. dollars, was reached in 2000 while the maximum of 1.09 billion U.S. dollars was recorded in 2008.

Graph and download economic data for Government current expenditures: Federal: National defense (G160461A027NBEA) from 1959 to 2023 about defense, expenditures, federal, government, GDP, and USA.