World defense spending increased by nearly 3% in 2025, primarily due to expanding military budgets in Europe and Asia, as per a Monday report from a prominent arms monitoring organization.
Europe’s defense outlays climbed 14% from 2024, reaching $864 billion, while the Asia-Oceania region saw an 8.1% rise to $681 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in their yearly “Trends in World Military Expenditure” report.
In total, global military spending hit nearly $2.9 trillion in 2025, marking a 2.9% year-over-year increase. This amount constitutes 2.5% of the world’s GDP, the highest proportion recorded since 2009, SIPRI reported.
The United States, China, Russia, Germany, and India were the leading contributors, together responsible for 58% of the worldwide expenditure.
Although the report indicates a decrease in the overall year-on-year spending growth compared to the 9.7% rise in 2024, it attributes this primarily to the US not authorizing additional aid for arming Ukraine in 2025. SIPRI registers foreign military aid under the donor nation’s budget.
Excluding the United States from the figures, global defense spending increased by 9.2% in 2025, the report states.
Nevertheless, the US continues to be the top military spender globally, allocating $954 billion in 2025, with China ranking second at an estimated $336 billion, and Russia third with approximately $190 billion.
However, it was America’s global allies who were primarily responsible for the spending surge, signaling some shifts across generations.
“European NATO member states’ military expenditures in 2025 saw their sharpest rise since 1953, reflecting a continued drive towards European self-sufficiency coupled with growing US pressure to enhance burden-sharing within the alliance,” stated Jade Guiberteau Ricard, a researcher for the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
Significant increases were observed in NATO nations such as Belgium (59%), Spain (50%), Norway (49%), Denmark (46%), Germany (24%), Poland (23%), and Canada (23%).
Germany’s total military expenditure of $114 billion positions it as the fourth-highest globally.
Within Asia, Japan’s military spending grew by 9.7% to $62.2 billion, according to the report. The 1.4% of Japan’s GDP allocated to defense marked the highest level for the nation since 1958, the report added.
“America’s allies in Asia and Oceania, including Australia, Japan, and the Philippines, are boosting their military outlays, driven by both persistent regional conflicts and increasing doubts about US backing,” noted SIPRI senior researcher Diego Lopes da Silva.
Concurrently, Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island—which the Chinese Communist Party asserts as its own territory despite never having governed it—raised its military spending by 14.2% to $18.2 billion (2.1% of GDP), representing its largest leap since at least 1988, as per SIPRI.
The Taiwan Relations Act mandates that Washington legally furnish the island with self-defense capabilities, and it provides Taipei with defensive arms.
China’s defense budget saw a 7.4% rise—its most significant year-on-year increase in a decade and the 31st consecutive year of growth—as Beijing works towards its 2035 objective of modernizing its military, the report indicated.
Ukraine stands as the world’s top military spender as a proportion of its GDP, dedicating an estimated 40%. Kyiv is currently in its fourth year of resisting a Russian invasion and holds the 7th rank globally in total spending.
Russia allocated 7.5% of its GDP to its military, reflecting a 5.9% increase over 2024 expenditures.
“Military spending as a percentage of government outlays in 2025 reached an unprecedented high in both Russia and Ukraine,” stated SIPRI researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato. “Their expenditures are projected to continue rising in 2026 should the conflict persist, driven by growing revenues from Russian oil exports and an anticipated substantial European Union loan for Ukraine.”
Shifting to other regions, Saudi Arabia led military spending in the Middle East with $83.2 billion, a 1.4% increase from the previous year.
Israel ranked second to Saudi Arabia in regional military expenditure, spending $48.3 billion. This marked a 4.9% decrease from the prior year, attributed by SIPRI to the de-escalation of hostilities in Gaza following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in January 2025.
Iran experienced a 5.6% real-term reduction in its recorded spending; however, due to 42% high inflation and unrecorded oil revenue financing, Tehran’s actual military outlays probably grew, the report suggested.
“Official statistics almost certainly underestimate Iran’s actual spending—Iran also leverages off-budget oil revenues to finance its military, particularly for missile and drone production,” explained SIPRI researcher Zubaida Karim.
In South Asia, India’s military spending, influenced by its conflict with neighboring Pakistan, surged by 8.9% to $92.1 billion. New Delhi holds the 5th global rank and exceeded Islamabad’s spending by $80 billion.
Across Africa, military expenditures collectively rose by 8.5% to $58.2 billion. If Africa were a single nation, this sum would place it 11th globally, surpassing Israel but trailing Japan. Algeria is the continent’s largest spender, second only to Ukraine in the percentage of GDP allocated to its military (25%).
The SIPRI indicated that the current year is expected to witness even larger rises in defense outlays.
“Considering the multitude of ongoing crises and numerous nations’ long-term military spending objectives, this upward trend is likely to persist throughout 2026 and into subsequent years,” stated SIPRI researcher Xiao Liang in the report.
The United States is anticipated to be a major factor in this trend. Congress has already authorized over $1 trillion for defense spending in 2026, as the conflict against Iran, nearing its third month, is incurring costs of approximately a billion dollars daily for Washington.
The Trump administration has proposed a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027.