Israel, US Lead Rank Among Countries with Biggest Military Spending
The US spent $954 billion in military spending last year, taking up 3.1 percent of GDP. What other countries spent the most for their militaries?
In 2025, global military spending reached a staggering $2.88 trillion, marking a 2.9% increase from the previous year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), as reported by Al Jazeera. This figure surpasses the $1.981 trillion spent by militaries worldwide in 2020.
While the size of a nation's military can vary greatly, military spending is often used to enforce domestic and foreign policies and protect citizens. Typically, military budgets rise during wartime and decrease during peaceful times. Examining which countries lead in this spending, the United States stands out as the biggest spender, with $954 billion in 2025, according to World Population Review.
This is significantly more than China's $336 billion, Russia's $190 billion, Germany's $114 billion, India's $92 billion, the UK's $89 billion, and Ukraine's $84 billion.
Interestingly, Israel, despite its extensive military operations against neighboring countries and the occupied Palestine, ranks lower on the list, spending $48.3 billion. This places Israel between Japan's $62.2 billion and Italy's $48.1 billion spending. The decrease in Israel's military spending by 4.9% from 2024 is attributed to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in January 2025, as cited by CNN.
On a relative scale, when considering military spending as a percentage of GDP, Israel ranks highest among OECD countries at 7.81%, as reported by Statista. This high percentage is largely due to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East region. Other countries with significant military spending relative to GDP include Poland (4.50%), Latvia (3.61%), Estonia (3.37%), Norway (3.28%), Denmark (3.25%), Colombia (3.20%), the United States (3.12%), Lithuania (3.08%), and Greece (2.99%). These figures highlight the impact of ongoing conflicts and regional tensions on military budgets.
Written by urgent.news from Tempo.co English's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
