World Military Expenditure Hits All-Time High, India Among Top 5 Spenders: Think Tank

India was the fourth-largest military spender globally in 2023, with $83.6 billion in military expenditure, according to a Stockholm-based think tank, which says global spending reached an all-time high of $2.4 trillion. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) named the United States, China, and Russia as the top spenders in 2023.

Military spending rose with a particular spike in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, SIPRI said in a statement. “The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security,” said Nan Tian, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. “States are prioritising military strength but they risk an action–reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape.”

China, the world’s second-largest military spender, allocated an estimated $296 billion to the military in 2023, an increase of 6.0 percent from 2022. This was the 29th consecutive year-on-year rise in China’s military expenditure. China accounted for half of total military spending across the Asia and Oceania region. Several of China’s neighbours have linked their own spending increases to China’s rising military expenditure, according to SIPRI.

Russia’s military spending increased by 24 percent to an estimated $109 billion in 2023, marking a 57 percent rise since 2014, the year that Russia annexed Crimea. In 2023 Russia’s military spending made up 16 percent of total government spending and its military burden (military spending as a share of gross domestic product, GDP) was 5.9 percent.

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“Ukraine was the eighth largest spender in 2023, after a spending surge of 51 percent to reach $64.8 billion. This gave Ukraine a military burden of 37 percent and represented 58 percent of total government spending. Ukraine’s military spending in 2023 was 59 percent the size of Russia’s,” the think tank said. However, Ukraine also received at least $35 billion in military aid during the year, including $25.4 billion from the USA. Combined, this aid and Ukraine’s own military spending were equivalent to about 91 percent of Russian spending.

In 2023 the 31 NATO members accounted for $1341 billion, equal to 55 percent of the world’s military expenditure. Military spending by the USA rose by 2.3 percent to reach $916 billion in 2023, representing 68 percent of total NATO military spending. In 2023 most European NATO members increased their military expenditure. Their combined share of the NATO total was 28 percent, the highest in a decade. The remaining 4 percent came from Canada and Türkiye.

Spending also rose across the Middle East, where Israel — the region’s second-largest spender — saw a 24-percent increase, to $27.5 billion in 2023 — mainly driven by the country’s offensive in Gaza in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas. Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s largest spender, also upped its spending by 4.3 percent to an estimated $75.8 billion.