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Fairly good graphics at the citation: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-largest-military-budgets-2022/


A map of the top 40 largest military budgets in the world in 2022
Mapped: World’s Top 40 Largest Military Budgets
In the final year of World War II, the U.S. spent about 38% of its GDP
on its military. When adjusted for inflation, the military budget over
those four years of war came to a staggering $4.1 trillion in 2020 dollars.

Almost 80 years later, modern day military spending isn’t much of a far
cry from World War II budgets. The top spenders have continued to
increase their military capabilities, while war in Ukraine has caused
countries in the region to re-evaluate their budgets as well.

In 2022, global military budgets hit an all-time high of $2.2 trillion, according to data released by Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute (SIPRI), the eighth consecutive year of increase. This post
looks at the top 40 largest military budgets in the world.

The Largest Military Budgets in 2022
The United States accounts for almost 40% of global military
expenditures, with its 2022 spend coming to $877 billion.

Here are the top 40 largest military budgets in the world for 2022 in
U.S. dollars:

Search:
Rank Country Military Budget (Billions) % of World
Military Spend
1 🇺🇸 U.S. $876.9 39.0%
2 🇨🇳 China $292.0 13.0%
3 🇷🇺 Russia $86.4 3.9%
4 🇮🇳 India $81.4 3.6%
5 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia $75.0 3.3%
6 🇬🇧 UK $68.5 3.1%
7 🇩🇪 Germany $55.8 2.5%
8 🇫🇷 France $53.6 2.4%
9 🇰🇷 South Korea $46.4 2.1%
10 🇯🇵 Japan $46.0 2.1%
Showing 1 to 10 of 40 entriesPreviousNext

China, ranked second in absolute terms, accounts for another 13% of
world military expenditure at $292 billion.

Russia, India and Saudi Arabia round out the top five biggest military
budgets in 2022. Add in the UK to the mix (#6 rank), and these countries
all had military expenditures that made up at least 3% of global spend.

Comparatively, the lowest budgets on the top 40 ranged include Romania
at $5.2 billion, Denmark at $5.5 billion, and Chile at $5.6 billion.
They each account for just 0.2% of the world’s military budgets in 2022,
and of course there are many countries with even smaller spends.

Largest Military Budget Increases in 2022
Russia’s position as the third-largest military spender is a recent development, as the country’s military spend had a 9% increase between
2021 and 2022, according to SIPRI estimates.

On the other side of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine was the top 40 military budget with the largest annual increase in 2022, surging nearly six and
a half times above its 2021 expenditures.

Search:
Country % Change
(2021-2022) Rank Change
(2021-2022)
🇺🇦 Ukraine 640% +25
🇶🇦 Qatar 27% +2
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 16% +3
🇧🇪 Belgium 13% 0
🇳🇱 Netherlands 12% 0
🇸🇪 Sweden 12% -1
🇵🇱 Poland 11% 0
🇷🇺 Russia 9.2% +2
🇩🇰 Denmark 8.8% +3
🇪🇸 Spain 7.3% -1
Showing 1 to 10 of 40 entriesPreviousNext
Ukraine’s dramatic increase represents the highest single-year jump ever recorded by SIPRI, painting a vivid before-and-after picture of a nation engaged in conflict.

Although no other country comes close in matching Ukraine’s surge in
defense spending, Qatar saw a substantial increase of 27% over the last
year, marking a continuing trend over the last decade of significantly bolstering its military.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia, along with four European nations (Belgium,
the Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland), have registered year-over-year
changes of over 10%.

On the flipside, 13 of the nations with the largest military budgets
decreased spend from 2021, including top 15 spenders such as South
Korea, Italy, and Israel.

The largest drop was seen by Türkiye, with an estimated 26% reduction in military budget. This drop may be linked to Türkiye’s inflation problem, which saw prices rise 72.3% in 2022—effectively decreasing the
purchasing power of their currency in relative terms to other nations.

The Specter of War in Europe
With an ongoing conflict in the region and large financial powerhouses,
its no surprise that eight of the top 10 countries with the most
significant increases in military spending are located in Europe.

Consequently, European military budgets have reached levels not
witnessed since the end of the Cold War.

And amid escalating geopolitical concerns, countries in Asia such as
India, Japan, and China have also ramped up their defense spending. This
is an indication of simmering global flashpoints such as India and
China’s border skirmishes, the longstanding South China Sea territorial conflict, and concerns surrounding Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Data note: SIPRI’s military expenditure data collection began in 1949,
thus its records do not account for all expenditure that occurred during
both World Wars.

Please see SIPRI’s methodologies page for more details on how they
collect their data and create estimates.

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