Military Expenditure Around The World
The map below, along with the graphs, showcase how military expenditure has changed from 1960 to 2018 (In today’s dollars). Two important trends can be observed: 1) Overall annual expenditure has steadily increased for almost all countries. 2) Annual military expenditure in the United States has consistently eclipsed the expenditure level of other countries.
Use the slider on the map to observe how the trend changes year by year.
Although it is clear that the United States has consistently kept the highest expenditure level in the last few decades, we cannot ignore the increase in defense budgets from other countries.
OECD member countries have also increased their budgets significantly. The annual percentage change of military expenditure for all OECD countries is close to that of the United States, and we can clearly see that countries like France, Germany, and the UK have considerably increased their annual military budgets since the 1980s.
In addition, countries like India, Saudi Arabia, and China have increased their share in the world’s total military expenditure level. Despite this, the United States still outspends other top spenders by a significant margin.
