28 April 2025
World military expenditure rose to $2718 billion in 2024, according to the latest data release from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Military spending has increased every year for a full decade, going up by 37 per cent between 2015 and 2024. The 9.4 per cent increase in 2024 was the steepest year-on-year rise since at least 1988.
All NATO members increased their military expenditure in 2024. Total military spending by NATO members amounted to $1506 billion, or 55 per cent of global military expenditure. This was 8.9 per cent more than the previous year and 31 per cent more than in 2015. In 2024 military expenditure per capita of all NATO members was $1528, up from $970 in 2015.
Of the 32 NATO members, 18 spent at least 2.0 per cent of GDP on their militaries, according to SIPRI methodology, up from 11 in 2023 and the highest number since NATO adopted the spending guideline in 2014. At 2.2 per cent, the average military burden of NATO members in 2024 also surpassed 2.0 per cent, with the burden ranging from Luxembourg’s 1.0 per cent to Poland’s 4.2 per cent. SIPRI’s methodology for calculating military expenditure and military burden is based on open sources and differs from that used by NATO for its annual data. As a result, SIPRI’s data does not exactly match the data published by NATO. According to NATO estimates, for example, 22 member states were expected to meet or exceed the 2% spending target in 2024.
All NATO members increased their military spending in 2024 (excluding Iceland, which has no military expenditure). Military spending by the USA rose by 5.7 per cent to reach $997 billion, which was 66 per cent of total NATO spending and 37 per cent of world military spending in 2024. European NATO members spent $454 billion in total, representing 30 per cent of total spending across the alliance.
“The rapid spending increases among European NATO members were driven mainly by the ongoing Russian threat and concerns about possible US disengagement within the alliance”, said Jade Guiberteau Ricard, Researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. “It is worth saying that boosting spending alone will not necessarily translate into significantly greater military capability or independence from the USA. Those are far more complex tasks”.
China’s military spending in 2024 was an estimated $314 billion, while Russia’s military spending grew by 38 per cent in 2024 to an estimated $149 billion, equivalent to 7.1 per cent of Russia’s GDP. Ukraine’s military spending increased by 2.9 per cent to $64.7 billion, representing 34 per cent of its GDP.