bipolar structure of the Cold War to the shifting dynamics of the 1990s, and into the present day, shaped by new conflicts and rising geopolitical tensions.
In recent years, the war between Russia and Ukraine and the ongoing escalation between Israel and Palestine have pushed defense budgets back into the global spotlight. Using data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), we examine which countries allocate the most resources to their military, how global priorities have shifted, and what these trends reveal about power and security in the 21st century.
Top Military Spenders in 2024
The year 2024 marks a historic peak in global military expenditure, with total spending reaching unprecedented levels across all continents. According to SIPRI data, a small group of countries continues to dominate the global rankings — both in absolute terms and in strategic influence.
At the top of the list is once again the United States, with a defense budget of approximately $968.4 billion. This staggering amount accounts for an estimated 40% of total global military spending, and underscores the U.S.’s continued role as the world’s leading military power. Much of this budget is allocated to advanced weapons systems, nuclear deterrence, global military presence, and ongoing investments in cybersecurity and space capabilities.
China remains firmly in second place with an estimated $317.6 billion in military spending in 2024. The country has steadily increased its budget over the past two decades, reflecting its ambitions to project power in the Indo-Pacific region, modernize the People’s Liberation Army, and challenge U.S. dominance in strategic areas like the South China Sea and Taiwan.
In third place, Russia has dramatically expanded its military spending to over $150.5 billion, a sharp rise compared to previous years. The war in Ukraine — now in its third full year — has transformed Russia’s defense budget priorities, with massive investments in conventional forces, missile systems, and domestic arms production to compensate for international sanctions.
A surprising newcomer among the top five is Germany, which in 2024 allocated $86.3 billion to defense. This represents a historic shift in German policy, driven by the war on Europe’s eastern flank and a broader European rearmament strategy. For the first time since the Cold War, Germany is emerging as a central military player within NATO.
India, with $83.6 billion in spending, rounds out the top five. The country’s military investments reflect tensions with both China and Pakistan, as well as a broader effort to modernize its aging armed forces and develop indigenous defense technologies.
Here are: Military Spending By Country 2024
- United States – $968.4 billion
- China – $317.6 billion
- Russia – $150.5 billion
- Germany – $86.3 billion
- India – $83.6 billion
- Saudi Arabia – $78.9 billion
- United Kingdom – $77.4 billion
- France – $63.1 billion
- Japan – $58.4 billion
- South Korea – $48.5 billion
- Ukraine – $66.8 billion
- Israel – $45.3 billion
- Italy – $37.4 billion
- Australia – $33.0 billion
- Canada – $29.1 billion
Countries with the Fastest Military Spending Growth (2020–2024)
Between 2020 and 2024, global military budgets grew rapidly — but not evenly. While some countries maintained steady increases, others experienced explosive growth due to war, regional instability, or strategic repositioning. Here are some of the most notable examples:
Ukraine: +798%
No country has seen a more dramatic increase than Ukraine, whose military spending jumped from $7.4 billion in 2020 to $66.8 billion in 2024 — an almost eightfold increase. This is the direct result of the ongoing war with Russia, which began with the full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukraine’s budget now relies heavily on international military assistance, but also reflects massive domestic mobilization and reallocation of state resources toward defense.
Russia: +125%
Russia more than doubled its military budget in the same period, from $66.8 billion in 2020 to over $150.5 billion in 2024. Despite facing economic sanctions, the Russian government has prioritized war spending, with huge allocations to weapons production, troop salaries, and defense infrastructure. The war in Ukraine has reshaped Russia’s economy into one increasingly geared toward sustaining a long-term military effort.Germany: +67%
In response to Russia’s aggression and internal debates within NATO, Germany has undergone a historic policy shift. From $51.6 billion in 2020, military spending rose to $86.3 billion in 2024. Chancellor Scholz’s announcement of a Zeitenwende (turning point) in defense policy led to the creation of a €100 billion special defense fund and a rethinking of Germany’s role as a European security guarantor.
China: +30%
Although its growth is more moderate in percentage terms, China remains the second-largest spender globally. Its military budget increased from $244.9 billion in 2020 to $317.6 billion in 2024, with sustained year-on-year growth. These increases reflect the long-term strategic goal of building a modern, technologically advanced military capable of competing with the U.S., especially in the Indo-Pacific region.
Israel: +115%
Israel’s military budget rose significantly from $21.1 billion in 2020 to $45.3 billion in 2024, reflecting renewed conflict with Hamas and rising tensions with Iran and Hezbollah. Defense spending in Israel remains one of the highest in the world as a percentage of GDP, underlining the centrality of military preparedness in its national policy.
Military Spending Before the End of the Cold War
In the final years of the Cold War, military spending was heavily concentrated between the two global superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1987, for example, the U.S. allocated approximately $683 billion (adjusted for 2024 USD) to defense, while the Soviet Union spent an estimated $440 billion, accounting together for well over half of global military expenditure.
This period was marked by a continuous arms race — not only in terms of conventional forces but also in nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, and space militarization. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact maintained large standing armies, with Europe as the main theatre of deterrence and potential confrontation.
Countries like Germany (West), France, and the United Kingdom also had substantial defense budgets, reflecting their key roles within NATO. For example, West Germany spent over $64 billion, primarily on land forces stationed along the Iron Curtain. The UK and France invested between $50–60 billion each, balancing conventional capabilities with nuclear deterrents.
In contrast, military spending in the Global South and Asia was comparatively modest during this time, with notable exceptions like China, which was already beginning to modernize its forces, and India, which maintained a large but less technologically advanced military.
The collapse of the Eastern Bloc between 1989 and 1991 brought a dramatic transformation. The dissolution of the USSR not only ended the bipolar structure of global power but also led to a sharp decline in military spending across Eastern Europe and Russia. For a brief period in the 1990s, it appeared that global defense budgets might shrink in favor of peace dividends and international cooperation.
However, as later decades would show, this period of relative optimism was short-lived.
Video: Military Spending by Country 1987/2024: https://youtu.be/hQjqXp_odkw
Largest armies in the world: https://statisticsanddata.org/data/largest-army-in-the-world-1816-2024/
Source: Our World in Data and Wikipedia
