According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published on Saturday, global military expenditure surged by 0.7% in 2021 to a whopping $2113 billion.
62% of this was attributed to just five countries—the United States (US), China, India, the United Kingdom (UK), and Russia. They were followed by France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea. In fact, the top ten countries on the list cumulatively spent $1.6 billion last year.
Who were the top 10 military spenders in 2021?
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 25, 2022
1) USA🇺🇸
2) China🇨🇳
3) India🇮🇳
4) UK🇬🇧
5) Russia🇷🇺
6) France🇫🇷
7) Germany🇩🇪
8) Saudi Arabia🇸🇦
9) Japan🇯🇵
10) South Korea🇰🇷
Together they spent $1578 billion, accounting for 75% of global military spending ➡️ https://t.co/9dsFAulApR pic.twitter.com/Axq6nd9DLU
Military spending by the top 15 countries reached $1717 billion in 2021, accounting for 81% of global military expenditure. The #USA🇺🇸 and #China🇨🇳 remained by far the two largest spenders, accounting for 38% and 14%, respectively ➡️ https://t.co/9dsFAu3Z1h#GDAMS2022 pic.twitter.com/jB1H5k6bfi
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 25, 2022
Among the notable changes in the ranking was the rise of the UK ($68.4 billion) and France ($56.6 billion), which became the fourth and sixth-largest spenders after coming up by two ranks. In contrast, Saudi Arabia ($55.6 billion) oversaw a 17% decline in its military spending, slipping from the fourth-largest spender in 2020 to the eighth-largest in 2021. Iran ($24.6 billion), meanwhile, featured in SIPRI’s top 15 defence spenders for the first time in 20 years after increasing its expenditure by 11%.
Once again, the US cemented its position as the largest spender on defence, accounting for 38% of the world share, with $801 billion in spending. The report said that while there was a nominal increase of 2.9%, real expenditure in fact dropped by 1.4% when accounting for inflation.
Total military spending accounted for 2.2% of #GDP in 2021. What is the average military burden by region?
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 25, 2022
▫️ Americas: 1.4%
▫️ Africa: 1.6%
▫️ Asia and Oceania: 1.7%
▫️ Europe: 1.8%
▫️ Middle East: 4.3%
Read more in SIPRI's latest Fact Sheet ➡️ https://t.co/H1pigJJFqE pic.twitter.com/f2oU5taIt8
Military spending by the top 15 countries reached $1717 billion in 2021, accounting for 81% of global military expenditure. The #USA🇺🇸 alone accounted for 38% of total spending.
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 26, 2022
More on the trends in world military spending in SIPRI's latest Fact Sheet ➡️ https://t.co/H1pigJJFqE pic.twitter.com/ITjN1aUUrF
The US’ funding for research and development has surged by 24% since 2012, compared to its funding for arms procurement, which has dropped by 6.4% over the same period. Keeping this in mind, SIPRI concluded that the US is “currently prioritising the development of new technologies over large-scale spending on legacy systems.”
In second place, China allotted $293 billion to defence in 2021, a 72% increase from 2012. In fact, 2021 marked the 27th consecutive year in which Beijing has increased military spending, which SIPRI said is the “longest uninterrupted sequence of increases by any country” in its Military Expenditure Database.
China🇨🇳, the world's second largest spender, allocated an estimated $293 billion to its military in 2021, an increase⬆️ of 4.7% from 2020 and 72% from 2012. #China's military spending has grown for 27 consecutive years.
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 25, 2022
More on world military spending ➡️ https://t.co/9dsFAulApR pic.twitter.com/Bst2vDiQZI
Military spending in #Asia and #Oceania totalled $586 billion in 2021. Spending in the region was ⬆️3.5% higher than in 2020, continuing an uninterrupted upward trend dating back to at least 1989.
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 25, 2022
New SIPRI data on world military expenditure out now ➡️ https://t.co/9dsFAulApR pic.twitter.com/LFgitDvTrw
Next, India was placed third after a 0.9% rise in spending to $76.6 billion. The report attributed this steady rise to enduring border tensions with Beijing and Islamabad, which have pushed New Delhi to modernise its armed forces and boost self-reliance in defence equipment. To this end, 64% of India’s capital outlays were set aside for acquiring indigenous arms and ammunition. Furthermore, an earlier SIPRI report published in March said that Myanmar is India’s largest partner in defence exports, with 50% being sent to Naypyidaw between 2017 and 2021.
Russia came fifth with $65.9 billion as it was gearing up for its invasion of Ukraine. Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, the director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said, “High oil and gas revenues helped Russia to boost its military spending in 2021. Russian military expenditure had been in decline between 2016 and 2019 as a result of low energy prices combined with sanctions in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.”
As a result of a sharp economic recovery in 2021, the global military burden—world military expenditure as a share of world #GDP—fell by 0.1 percentage points, from 2.3% in 2020 to 2.2% in 2021.
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 25, 2022
Read more about the trends in world military spending ➡️ https://t.co/9dsFAu3Z1h pic.twitter.com/fyCd9GbBkh
Meanwhile, amid heightened tensions with Russia, Ukraine’s military spending rose by 72% since Crimea’s annexation in 2014. While its expenditure dropped in 2021, Ukraine still spent over 3.2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence.
The report also looked into regional trends of military spending. It concluded that the Americas (42%), Asia and Oceania (28%), and Europe (20%) collectively accounted for 90% of global defence expenditure in 2021. Meanwhile, the Middle East and Africa accounted for a meagre 8.8% and 1.9%, respectively. Nevertheless, the military burden, which is measured by comparing a country’s military expenditure with its GDP, was the highest in the Middle East, where 4.3% of regional GDP was set aside for defence purposes.
Previous SIPRI Reports:
- SUMMARY: SIPRI Report on Global Arms Transfers From 2016-2020
- Swedish Think Tank SIPRI Says China, India, Pakistan Expanding Nuclear Arsenal
- Four Chinese Defence Equipment Companies Listed in World’s Top 25 Arms Manufacturers
SIPRI also concluded that just eight of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 30 members had met the alliance’s target of allocating over 2% of their GDP to their military. This was a slight drop from 2020, wherein nine countries had managed to achieve the alliance’s target.
The release said that 2021 was the sixth consecutive year that global military and defence expenditure had increased. According to Dr Diego Lopes Da Silva, a senior researcher in SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, while the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation resulted in a “slowdown in the rate of real-terms growth,” there was an overall 6.1% increase in spending.