• According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, $2.718 trillion was spent on weapons globally in 2024.
• For the tenth consecutive year, global military spending is on the rise, reaching an average of 2.5 per cent of GDP.
• Europe is shifting into high gear, while the United States and China have also increased their spending.

While the world waits to see what will become in 2025 of the much-discussed European rearmament plan proposed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, last year already marked the tenth consecutive increase in global military spending, reaching a total of $2.718 trillion. The ten countries most hungry for weapons have all increased their military expenditure, and the share of global gross domestic product devoted to military spending rose to 2.5 per cent in 2024 – half a percentage point above the standard required of NATO member states. This is among the findings of the new report by SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

SIPRI ✓ @SIPRIorg

𝕏

#FactFriday ➡️ Military spending increased in all world regions, with particularly rapid growth in both Europe and the Middle East. Explore the data: sipri.org/databases/milex

Accurate, dependable information matters more than ever. Invest in the facts. Support #SIPRI:

♥ 4 9 mag 2025 · Apri su X →

Military spending has risen relentlessly for 10 years

More than 100 countries around the world increased their arms spending in 2024, because "governments are prioritising military security more and more, often at the expense of other budget areas: the economic and social trade-offs could have significant effects on societies in the years to come," explains Xiao Liang, a researcher in SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. The dozens of ongoing wars inevitably weigh on these figures – among them the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Israel's siege of Gaza, the resurgence of violence across the African continent, and the growing instability between India and Pakistan (which together represent a continent in their own right) – all of which have persuaded much of the world of the need to rearm.

Already by 2024, for instance, military spending across geographic Europe, including Russia, rose by 17 per cent, reaching $693 billion, and contributed significantly to the global increase. With the war in Ukraine entering its third year, military spending continued to rise across the continent, pushing European military expenditure beyond the level recorded at the end of the Cold War. Every European country increased its military spending in 2024, except the tiny island nation of Malta. Russia's military spending reached an estimated $149 billion in 2024, an increase of 38 per cent compared to 2023. Ukraine's grew by 2.9 per cent, reaching $64.7 billion: with expenditure equal to 34 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), Ukraine bore the highest military burden as a share of GDP of any country in 2024.

SIPRI ✓ @SIPRIorg

𝕏

The global military burden—the share of global gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to military expenditure—increased to 2.5 per cent in 2024.
Full analysis ➡️ doi.org/10.55163/AVEC8…

#GDAMS2025 #MilitaryExpenditure #DefenseBudget #MilitaryBudget #SIPRI #Milex

♥ 15 6 mag 2025 · Apri su X →

Several other countries in central and western Europe also recorded unprecedented increases in military spending in 2024, driven by the implementation of large-scale new procurement plans. Germany's military spending rose by 28 per cent, reaching $88.5 billion, making it the country allocating the most money in absolute terms in central and western Europe, and fourth in the world. Poland's military spending, sharing a border with Ukraine, grew by 31 per cent, reaching $38 billion in 2024, equivalent to 4.2 per cent of Polish GDP.

"For the first time since reunification, Germany is the biggest military spender in western Europe, thanks to the €100 billion special defence fund announced in 2022," explains Lorenzo Scarazzato, also a researcher at SIPRI: "The latest policies adopted in Germany and many other European countries suggest that Europe has entered a phase of high and rising military spending that is set to continue in the near future."

France and Great Britain have also reached significant figures. Staying in the West, United States military spending also increased, by 5.7 per cent, reaching $997 billion, equivalent to 66 per cent of total NATO spending and 37 per cent of global military expenditure in 2024 – although this could be a trend set to change soon, given President Donald Trump's demands that Europe do more to rebalance the financial burden-sharing within the Atlantic Alliance.

Has the age of rearmament truly begun, as Ursula von der Leyen claims? Speaking to LifeGate, Francesco Vignarca, coordinator of Rete italiana pace disarmo, is adamant that it has not: "Rearmament is not a season like spring or winter – it is always a political choice: from one country's rearmament arise the fears of others, and thus a new round of rearmament. A kind of self-fulfilling prophecy," and one that in many cases ultimately gives rise to the geopolitical tensions we are experiencing today.

Too many weapons in the Middle East too

As for the Middle East, SIPRI estimates that military spending reached $243 billion in 2024, an increase of 15 per cent compared to 2023 and 19 per cent compared to 2015.

Rete Italiana Pace e Disarmo @RetePaceDisarmo

𝕏

Il tempo è ora. Non si può più attendere. Occorre una risposta complessiva, coraggiosa, adeguata al momento.

#PaceGiusta #TempoDellaPace #Palestina #Israele

ilmanifesto.it/tacciano-le-ar…

♥ 4 5 mag 2025 · Apri su X →

Israel's military spending, unsurprisingly, recorded the largest increase of all, rising by 65 per cent to reach $46.5 billion in 2024 — the steepest annual surge since the Six-Day War of 1967 — as Israel continued to wage war in Gaza and escalated its conflict with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Its military burden climbed to 8.8 per cent of GDP, the second highest in the world in percentage terms. Lebanon's military spending rose by 58 per cent in 2024, reaching $635 million, following several years of reduced expenditure caused by economic crisis and political turmoil. Iran's military spending, by contrast, fell by 10 per cent in real terms to $7.9 billion in 2024, as the impact of sanctions on Tehran has severely curtailed its ability to increase outlays. China, the world's second-largest military spender, raised its expenditure by 7 per cent to an estimated $314 billion, marking three consecutive decades of growth; investment is focused above all on modernising its armed forces and expanding its cyber-warfare capabilities and nuclear arsenal.

SIPRI ✓ @SIPRIorg

𝕏

Who were the 10 largest military spenders in 2024? Explore the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database to find out more:
🔗 sipri.org/databases/milex

#SIPRI #MilitaryExpenditure #DefenseBudget #MilitaryBudget

♥ 12 7 mag 2025 · Apri su X →

The situation in Asia is set to worsen

China's posture, and in particular its claims over the South China Sea, is also swelling the arsenals of many countries across the Indo-Pacific region, from Thailand to the Philippines and Taiwan. India's military spending, the fifth largest in the world, grew by 1.6 per cent to $86.1 billion, subsequently culminating in the attack launched in recent days against Pakistan — a prospect of war that is causing widespread alarm. Taiwan's spending grew by 1.8 per cent in 2024, reaching $16.5 billion. "The major military spenders in the Asia-Pacific region are investing increasing resources in advanced military capabilities," said Nan Tian, director of SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. "With several unresolved disputes and rising tensions, these investments risk pushing the region into a dangerous arms-race spiral." Or into the so-called self-fulfilling prophecy mentioned above.