List of countries with highest military expenditures

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.

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.

40 countries with the highest military spending worldwide in 2024
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)
for the year 2024

Rank	Country	Spending (US$ bn)	% of GDP	% of global spending
1	United States	997.0	3.4	37.0
2	China	314.0	1.7	12.0
3	Russia	149.0	7.1	5.5
4	Germany	88.5	1.9	3.3
5	India	86.1	2.3	3.2
6	United Kingdom	81.8	2.3	3.0
7	Saudi Arabia	80.3	7.3	3.0
8	Ukraine	64.7	34.0	2.4
9	France	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	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)
1	United States	968.0
2	China	235.0
3	Russia	145.9
4	Germany	86.0
5	United Kingdom	81.1
6	India	74.4
7	Saudi Arabia	71.7
8	France	64.0
9	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)

List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies
Top 15 Defence Budgets 2020

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	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	Kyrgyzstan	2.97%


Rank	Country	% of GDP
1	Oman	12.0%
2	Afghanistan	10.6%
3	Lebanon	10.5%
4	Kuwait	7.1%
5	Saudi Arabia	7.1%
6	Algeria	6.7%
7	Iraq	5.8%
8	UAE	5.6%
9	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.

List of countries with highest military expenditures

Highest military expenditure

Highest military expenditure, share of GDP

As a share of GDP

Graphics

See also