World military expenditure
Total global military spending, US$ billions, constant terms.
About this data
World military spending reached $2,718bn in 2024 — a 9.4% real rise, the steepest year-on-year increase since the end of the Cold War — then $2,887bn in 2025. That is an eleventh consecutive annual rise, taking the global military burden to 2.5% of GDP, its highest since 2009.
World military expenditure
Total global military spending, US$ billions, constant terms.
Data table
| year | usd_b | series | source_ref | value_basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2718 | world_total | sipri-2024-pr | World military expenditure $2,718bn in 2024, +9.4% real — steepest YoY rise since the end of the Cold War |
| 2025 | 2887 | world_total | sipri-2025-pr | World military expenditure $2,887bn in 2025, +2.9% real over 2024 |
Methodology & sources
Last updated: Aug 14, 2026Methodology
Figures are SIPRI military expenditure estimates in constant terms, so the year-on-year changes are real rather than nominal. SIPRI uses a consistent definition across countries — armed forces, defence ministries, paramilitary forces and military space activity — which is broader than most national defence-budget headlines and is why these numbers often exceed the figures governments publish themselves. OMITTED: China’s standalone 2024 figure is only expressible as "$997bn ÷ 3.2" (≈$312bn), a derivation from a published ratio rather than a published value, so it is not charted. Russia, Germany and India standalone figures were not retrieved and are not inferred from the group totals. CAVEAT: the top-spenders chart mixes single-country and grouped entries, and two different years. Read each bar’s label — they are not a like-for-like ranking. Context: 2025 was the eleventh consecutive annual rise, taking the global military burden to 2.5% of GDP, the highest since 2009. Re-verified 2026-08-10.
Sources
Comparisons are informative, not definitive. See each source for definitions and limits.