The United States remains the country with the highest military spending, which increased further in 2024. The country invested a total of 997 billion US dollars in its armed forces. More than 100 countries spent more on their military than last year. Significant increases in military spending are observed in Europe and the Middle East, as a result of the war in Ukraine and Gaza.
About 2.7 trillion dollars – this is the new financial record for world military spending last year – an increase of 9,4% compared to 2023. Military spending in the world has been increasing for ten years. But never so much since the end of the Cold War. More than 100 countries spent more on the military than last year. A significant increase in military spending is observed in Europe and the Middle East, a consequence of the war in Ukraine and Gaza, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI.
GERMANY CLIMBS TO 4TH PLACE
Germany has also played a significant role in this development in Europe: in 2024, German military spending increased for the third year in a row. According to SIPRI, it reached 88.5 billion US dollars, which was 28 percent more than the previous year. This places Germany in fourth place in the ranking of countries with the highest military spending – after the USA, China and Russia. In 2023, Germany was still in seventh place.
“For the first time since reunification, Germany is the country with the highest military spending in Western Europe,” says SIPRI researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato. This is due to the special fund of 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr, approved in 2022. With this money, Germany will better equip its army, which is in serious shortages. According to SIPRI, this is not the end: “Recent political decisions in Germany and many other European countries show that Europe has entered a phase of high and increasing military spending, which is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.”
UKRAINE WITH THE BIGGEST MILITARY BURDEN
Other European countries also significantly increased their military spending in 2024: Poland spent 31 percent more than the previous year and now invests 4.2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense. This is the highest value of all European NATO members. In 2024, the year it joined NATO, Sweden invested 34 percent more than the previous year, spending twelve billion US dollars on defense.
But Ukraine bears the world’s largest military burden: its military spending reached 34 percent of gross domestic product in 2024. By comparison, in Germany last year it was around two percent. “All tax revenues in Ukraine were completely absorbed by military spending in 2024, while all non-military socio-economic spending was financed by foreign aid,” the SIPRI report said. Meanwhile, aggressive Russia invested $149 billion in its armed forces last year, a 38 percent increase compared to 2023.
NO COUNTRY SPENDS MORE THAN THE USA
The United States remains the world’s largest military spender, and this is set to increase further in 2024. The country invested a total of $997 billion in its armed forces. “A significant portion of the US budget for 2024 was allocated to modernizing US military capabilities and the US nuclear arsenal to maintain a strategic advantage over Russia and China,” according to the SIPRI analysis. The US has more than 5000 nuclear warheads and is investing heavily in the gradual modernization of its arsenal.
China also continued its course of modernizing its military in all areas, a plan that is expected to last until 2035 – with a budget of $314 billion in 2024. According to SIPRI, the improved military capabilities include “new stealth fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles.” In addition, China rapidly expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2024. In the east, Japan also stands out for its military spending, increasing its military spending by 21% to $55,3 billion last year.
In the Middle East, Israel stands out, increasing its military spending by 65 percent to $46.5 billion in 2024. The reason for this is related to the escalation of the conflict with Hezbollah and the continuation of the war in the Gaza Strip. Against this background, Lebanon also spent significantly more on defense. Due to the country’s political and economic instability, this had not happened in previous years. (DW)
