Defense Budget Statistics in 2026: Global Military Spending, NATO, and the US

Defense budget statistics at a glance

Defense budgets in 2024 were defined by one number above all others: world military expenditure reached $2,718 billion (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024). That total sits inside a broader picture of accelerating spending, heavier fiscal pressure, and a sharp concentration of military budgets in a small group of countries.

Fast facts

Global military spending rose 9.4% in 2024, the steepest year-on-year rise since at least 1988 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
World military spending increased 37% between 2015 and 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
The global military burden rose to 2.5% of world GDP in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Military expenditure averaged 7.1% of government expenditure globally in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
World military spending per person was $334, the highest since 1990 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

What the latest defense budget statistics show
Global military spending trends
Country-by-country defense budget statistics
NATO defense budget statistics
US defense budget request details
What the numbers suggest

What the latest defense budget statistics show

The headline pattern is simple: defense spending is rising faster than many other large public budget categories, and it is doing so across several major economies at once.

Big number: global military spending crossed $2.7 trillion in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

A useful way to read the 2024 figures is to separate them into three layers:

the global total,
the large-country concentration,
and the defense burden each country carries relative to GDP or government spending.

That structure matters because a country can have a large defense budget in absolute terms without carrying the heaviest burden, while a smaller economy can spend a comparatively high share of output on defense.

Global military spending trends

The world’s military bill did not just rise in 2024. It rose sharply.

Key takeaway: the 9.4% global increase in 2024 was described as the steepest year-on-year rise since at least 1988 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

That matters because it places 2024 in a different category from an ordinary budget cycle. It is not a modest adjustment around a stable baseline. It is a step-change year.

The long-run trend

Looking at the longer timeline helps explain why the 2024 jump stands out:

World military spending was 37% higher in 2024 than in 2015 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
The global military burden reached 2.5% of world GDP in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Military expenditure averaged 7.1% of government expenditure globally in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Spending per person reached $334, the highest since 1990 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

These four figures tell a consistent story:

The absolute total is high.
The burden on the world economy is measurable.
Government budgets are allocating a meaningful share to defense.
The per-person cost is also rising.

Why these measures should be read together

Defense budget statistics can look very different depending on which denominator you use.

Absolute spending shows scale.
Share of GDP shows macroeconomic burden.
Share of government expenditure shows competition with other public priorities.
Per capita spending shows the implied burden per person.

The 2024 global figures are strong on all four counts. That is unusual enough to matter on its own, even before looking at individual countries.

Country-by-country defense budget statistics

The largest national budgets account for a large share of the total. In 2024, the United States remained by far the biggest single spender, followed by China, with Russia far behind in third place.

Major spenders in 2024

Country	2024 military spending	2024 change	Share or burden
United States	$997 billion	+5.7%	37% of global military expenditure (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024)
China	$314 billion	+7.0%	59% above 2015 level (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024)
Russia	$149 billion	+38%	7.1% of GDP (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024)
Germany	$88.5 billion	+28%	listed among the top spenders (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024)
India	$86.1 billion	+1.6%	listed among the top spenders (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024)
United Kingdom	$81.8 billion	+2.8%	listed among the top spenders (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024)
Saudi Arabia	$80.3 billion	-20% vs 2015	listed among the top spenders (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024)

The table shows two important patterns.

First, the United States remains in a class of its own in absolute terms. At $997 billion, US military spending in 2024 was more than three times China’s estimate of $314 billion (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

Second, the fastest-growing large budgets were not always the biggest ones. Russia’s spending rose 38% in 2024, Germany’s rose 28%, and Japan’s rose 21% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024). Those are large changes even by defense-budget standards.

A closer look at the United States and China

The United States and China anchor the global defense budget picture.

The United States spent $997 billion on its military in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
US military spending rose 5.7% in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
US military spending was 19% higher in 2024 than in 2015 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
The United States accounted for 37% of global military expenditure in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
China spent an estimated $314 billion on its military in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
China’s military spending increased 7.0% in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
China’s military spending was 59% above its 2015 level in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

That combination tells you something about the shape of defense demand: the largest spender is still growing, but the second-largest is also growing at a pace that keeps the gap strategically important rather than static.

High-burden cases

Some countries stand out less for total size and more for the share of national output they devote to military spending.

Russia’s military spending was equivalent to 7.1% of GDP in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Israel’s military burden reached 8.8% of GDP in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Poland’s military burden reached 4.2% of GDP in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

Those burden figures are useful because they show how defense spending competes with the rest of the economy. A country with a moderate absolute budget can still be devoting a very large slice of output to defense.

More country-level figures worth watching

Germany spent $88.5 billion on its military in 2024, up 28% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
India spent $86.1 billion, up 1.6% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
The United Kingdom spent $81.8 billion, up 2.8% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Saudi Arabia spent $80.3 billion, and that was 20% below its 2015 level (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Ukraine spent $64.7 billion, up 2.9% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
France spent $64.7 billion, up 6.1% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Japan spent $55.3 billion, up 21% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
South Korea spent $47.6 billion, up 1.4% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Israel spent $46.5 billion, up 65% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Italy spent $38.0 billion, up 1.4% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Australia spent $33.8 billion, up 1.9% (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

These numbers show that defense budget growth is not confined to one region. It is spread across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific.

NATO defense budget statistics

NATO spending deserves its own section because the alliance is large enough to matter as a separate budget bloc.

Fast fact: NATO members spent $1,506 billion on defense in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

That is not just a large total. It is 55% of world military spending (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

NATO at a glance

NATO members’ spending rose 8.9% in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
NATO members’ military spending was 31% higher in 2024 than in 2015 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
Eighteen NATO members spent at least 2.0% of GDP on their militaries in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
NATO members’ average military burden was 2.2% of GDP in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
NATO members’ military expenditure averaged 4.9% of government expenditure in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
NATO members’ military expenditure per capita was $1,528 in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

The alliance total is especially important because it combines a very large absolute budget with a high per-person cost.

European NATO members

European NATO members spent $454 billion in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

That was 30% of total NATO spending in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).

The European share matters for two reasons:

It shows how much of NATO’s budget is concentrated in Europe.
It helps explain why defense budgets are a recurring fiscal issue across the continent.

US defense budget request details

The SIPRI figures describe actual military spending in 2024. The US Department of Defense request gives a separate view into the planned budget pipeline.

Big number: the FY2025 US DoD budget request was $849.8 billion (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).

That request is smaller than the 2024 actual military spending figure, but it still stands as an enormous budget package in its own right.

What the FY2025 request included

The FY2025 DoD request was $33.9 billion, or 4.2%, above the FY2023 base level (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
It was $7.8 billion, or 0.9%, above the FY2024 President’s Budget request (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
The request included $49.2 billion for Nuclear Enterprise Modernization (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
It included $28.4 billion for missile defeat and defense (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
It included $61.4 billion for military medicine (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
It included $10.6 billion for military family support programs (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
The Department of the Navy FY2025 request was $257.586 billion (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
The Department of the Air Force FY2025 request was $262.642 billion (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).

Reading the request structure

The line items show how a defense budget is not just a single pool of money. It is a portfolio of priorities.

Nuclear Enterprise Modernization at $49.2 billion is a major strategic allocation (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
Missile defeat and defense at $28.4 billion highlights the importance of layered protection (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
Military medicine at $61.4 billion is larger than some countries’ entire military budgets, which gives a sense of the scale inside the overall request (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).
Military family support programs at $10.6 billion show that personnel-related costs remain part of the defense budget picture (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).

How the US request fits the wider picture

The US is present in the dataset in two ways:

as the largest actual spender in 2024 at $997 billion (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024), and
as the owner of a large FY2025 DoD request at $849.8 billion (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).

That combination is useful because it separates actual recent spending from the next-stage funding request. It also shows that the US defense budget remains large enough to shape global totals on its own.

What the numbers suggest

The strongest pattern in the data is not just growth. It is concentration plus acceleration.

Key takeaways from the defense budget statistics

The world now spends $2,718 billion on the military, which anchors the scale of the entire discussion (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
A 9.4% annual jump is unusually fast, especially when it comes after already elevated spending levels (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
The United States and NATO together account for a very large share of global military expenditure, with the US at 37% and NATO at 55% of the world total in 2024 (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
High-burden countries such as Israel at 8.8% of GDP and Russia at 7.1% of GDP show how defense pressure can dominate national output (SIPRI Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024).
The FY2025 US DoD request shows how budget composition matters just as much as budget size, with major allocations for nuclear modernization, missile defense, medicine, and family support (DoD FY2025 Budget Request Overview).

Why this keyword matters for readers

People searching for defense budget statistics usually want more than a single headline number. They want the scale, the trend, the country breakdown, and the burden on government finances.

This dataset provides all four. It shows a world in which defense spending is rising quickly, major powers still dominate the total, NATO remains a budget powerhouse, and US defense planning continues to command attention through both actual spending and budget requests.