List of countries by military expenditures

The following is a list of countries with the highest military expenditures.

By total spending

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 2025, based on current market exchange rates.^[1]

The second list is based on the 2026 edition of The Military Balance, published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) using average market exchange rates.^[2]

40 countries with the highest military spending worldwide in 2025^[1]
SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies

2026 edition of "The Military Balance" from the
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
for the year 2025^[2]

Rank	Country	Spending (US$ bn)	% of GDP	% of global spending
01	United States^[a]	954.0	3.1	33.0
02	China	336.0	1.7	12.0
03	Russia	190.0	7.5	6.6
04	Germany	114.0	2.3	3.9
05	India	92.1	2.3	3.2
06	United Kingdom	89.0	2.4	3.1
07	Ukraine	84.1	40.0	2.9
08	Saudi Arabia	83.2	6.5	2.9
09	France^[b]	68.0	2.0	2.4
10	Japan	62.2	1.4	2.2
11	Israel	48.3	7.8	1.7
12	Italy	48.1	1.9	1.7
13	South Korea	47.8	2.6	1.7
14	Poland^[b]	46.8	4.5	1.6
15	Spain	40.2	2.1	1.4
16	Canada	37.5	1.6	1.3
17	Australia	35.3	1.9	1.2
18	Turkey^[b]	30.0	1.9	1.0
19	Netherlands	28.9	2.2	1.0
20	Algeria	25.4	8.8	0.9
21	Brazil	23.9	1.1	0.8
22	Taiwan	18.2	2.1	0.6
23	Singapore	17.4	3.0	0.6
24	Norway	17.0	3.3	0.6
25	Sweden	16.5	2.5	0.6
26	Indonesia	15.0	1.0	0.5
27	Denmark	14.9	3.3	0.5
28	Belgium	14.5	2.0	0.5
29	Colombia	14.5	3.2	0.5
30	Mexico	13.6	0.7	0.5
31	Pakistan	11.9	2.9	0.4
32	Viet Nam	10.5	2.2	0.4
33	Romania	9.7	2.3	0.3
34	Greece	8.4	3.0	0.3
35	Kuwait	8.1	4.7	0.3
36	Finland	8.1	2.6	0.3
37	Switzerland	7.6	0.8	0.3
38	Iran	7.4	2.1	0.3
39	Czech Republic	7.1	1.8	0.2
40	Iraq	6.4	2.4	0.2

Rank	Country	Spending (US$ bn)
01	United States^[a]	921.0
02	China	251.3
03	Russia	186.2
04	Germany	107.3
05	United Kingdom	94.3
06	India	78.3
07	Saudi Arabia	72.5
08	France	70.0
09	Japan	58.9
10	Ukraine	44.4
11	South Korea	43.8
12	Italy	40.1
13	Israel	39.7
14	Australia	37.3
15	Poland	33.2

By 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.

List by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
SIPRI Military Expenditure Database (2025)^[3]

List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies
Top 15 Defence Budgets 2020^[4]

Rank	Country	% of GDP
1	Ukraine	39.56%
2	Algeria	8.83%
3	Israel	7.81%
4	Russia	7.50%
5	Saudi Arabia	6.48%
6	Azerbaijan	6.47%
7	Armenia	6.09%
8	Oman	5.68%
9	Kuwait	4.69%
10	Jordan	4.56%
11	Poland	4.50%
12	Mali	3.87%
13	Latvia	3.61%
14	Morocco	3.54%
15	South Sudan	3.42%
16	Estonia	3.37%
17	Burkina Faso	3.30%
18	Norway	3.28%
19	Denmark	3.25%
20	Burundi	3.24%
21	Colombia	3.20%
22	Chad	3.19%
23	United States	3.12%
24	Botswana	3.11%
25	Bahrain	3.11%
26	Lithuania	3.08%
27	Singapore	3.05%
28	Greece	2.99%
29	Kyrgyzstan	2.92%
30	Pakistan	2.91%


Rank	Country	% of GDP
01	Oman	12.0%
02	Afghanistan	10.6%
03	Lebanon	10.5%
04	Kuwait	7.1%
05	Saudi Arabia	7.1%
06	Algeria	6.7%
07	Iraq	5.8%
08	UAE	5.6%
09	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.

Graphics

Notes

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the actual defense spending by the United States Federal Government in 2025 was $893 billion.
The figures for France, Poland and Turkey exclude expenditure for National Gendarmerie, Żandarmeria Wojskowa and Gendarmerie General Command.

References

"Trends in Military Expenditure 2025" (PDF). Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. April 2026. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
"The Military Balance 2026: Global defence spending". IISS. Retrieved 24 February 2026.
"SIPRI Military Expenditure Database | SIPRI". www.sipri.org. Retrieved 27 April 2026.
"IISS Military Balance 2021". The Military Balance. 121 (1). International Institute for Strategic Studies: 23–29. January 2021. doi:10.1080/04597222.2021.1868791. S2CID 232050862. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2021.

External links

SIPRI military expenditure database (sipri.org)