List of countries by military expenditures

This is a list of countries by military expenditure in a given year. Military expenditure figures are presented in United States dollars based on either constant or current exchange rates.

Total military spending

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) 2020 fact sheet

The first list is based on the SIPRI fact sheet which includes a list of the world’s top 15 military spenders in 2020, based on current market exchange rates.

The second list is based on the 2021 edition of “The Military Balance” published by the (IISS) using average market exchange rates.

List by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
2021 Fact Sheet (for 2020)
SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies
Top 15 Defence Budgets 2020

Rank	Country	Spending (US$ bn)	% of GDP	% of Global Spending
	World total	1,981	2.4	100%
1	United States	778.0	3.7	39%
2	China	252.0	1.7	13%
3	India	72.9	2.9	3.7%
4	Russian Federation	61.7	4.3	3.1%
5	United Kingdom	59.2	2.2	3.0%
6	Saudi Arabia	57.5	8.4	2.9%
7	Germany	52.8	1.4	2.7%
8	France	52.7	2.1	2.7%
9	Japan	49.1	1.0	2.5%
10	South Korea	45.7	2.8	2.3%
11	Italy	28.9	1.6	1.5%
12	Australia	27.5	2.1	1.4%
13	Canada	22.8	1.4	1.1%
14	Israel	21.7	5.6	1.1%
15	Brazil	19.7	1.4	1.0%

2021 edition of “The Military Balance” from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)

Rank	Country	Spending (US$ bn)
1	United States	738.0
2	China	193.3
3	India	64.1
4	United Kingdom	61.5
5	Russia	60.6
6	France	55.0
7	Germany	51.3
8	Japan	49.7
9	Saudi Arabia	48.5
10	South Korea	40.4
11	Australia	31.3
12	Italy	29.3
13	Brazil	22.1
14	Canada	20.0
15	Israel	19.9

Military spending by GDP

Map of military expenditures as a percentage of GDP by country, 2017

This first list is a list of countries by military expenditure share of GDP—more specifically, a list of the top 15 countries by percentage share in recent years—the amount spent by a nation on its military as a share of its GDP.

The second list presents this as a share of the general government expenditure. The first list is sourced from the SIPRI for the year 2019 and from Military Balance 2017 published by International Institute for Strategic Studies for the year 2016. The second list is sourced only from the SIPRI for the year 2019.

None of the following analyze Cuba, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, or Syria, because although they likely would make the list, there is not enough information available to properly determine an exact statistic for their military spending as a percentage of GDP.

As a share of GDP

List by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
SIPRI Military Expenditure Database (2019)

List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies
Top 15 Defence Budgets 2020

Rank	Country	% of GDP
1	Oman	8.8%
2	Saudi Arabia	8.0%
3	Algeria	6.0%
4	Kuwait	5.6%
5	Israel	5.3%
6	Armenia	4.9%
7	Jordan	4.7%
8	Lebanon	4.2%
9	Azerbaijan	4.0%
10	Pakistan	4.0%
11	Russia	3.9%
12	Bahrain	3.7%
13	Iraq	3.5%^*
14	USA	3.4%
15	South Sudan	3.4%

Rank	Country	% of GDP
1	Oman	12.0
2	Afghanistan	10.6
3	Lebanon	10.5
4	Kuwait	7.1
5	Saudi Arabia	7.1
6	Algeria	6.7
7	Iraq	5.8
8	UAE	5.6
9	Azerbaijan	5.4
10	Morocco	5.3
10	Israel	5.2
12	Jordan	4.9
13	Armenia	4.8
13	Mali	4.5
15	Qatar	4.4

* Bold values with an asterisk above are highly uncertain SIPRI estimates.Italic values are SIPRI estimates.

As a share of government spending (2019)

Rank	Country	% of spending
1	Belarus	31.8%
2	Singapore	21.4%
3	Saudi Arabia	20.3%
4	Oman	20.3%
5	Armenia	19.8%
6	Pakistan	18.4%
7	Algeria	15.5%
8	Jordan	15.2%
9	Chad	14.0%
10	Lebanon	13.8%
11	Iran	13.3%
12	Israel	13.2%
13	Togo	12.2%
14	Bahrain	12.1%
15	South Korea	12.1%

Notes

^ Jump up to:^a ^b SIPRI estimate.
^ The figures for Saudi Arabia include expenditure for public order and safety and might be slightly overestimated.