Stockholm, 27 April 2026
Global military spending hits record $2.887 trillion in 2025
Global military expenditure rose by 2.9 percent in real terms in 2025, reaching $2.887 trillion—the eleventh consecutive year of growth. Over the past decade (2016–2025), worldwide spending increased by 41 percent, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). With military spending of $17 billion, Norway ranked 24th in 2025 on the list of countries with the highest defense budgets, climbing one place from the previous year. Norway accounted for 0.6 percent of global military spending, with defense expenditures representing 3.3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). Only Russia (estimated 7.5 percent), Ukraine (estimated 40 percent), Poland (4.5 percent), Algeria (8.8 percent), Israel (7.8 percent), Saudi Arabia (estimated 6.5 percent), and Kuwait (4.7 percent) allocated a higher share of GDP to military spending. Compared to 2024, Norway's defense budget surged by 49 percent in 2025—outpaced only by Belgium and Spain.
The global military burden—the share of world GDP spent on defense—rose from 2.4 percent in 2024 to 2.5 percent in 2025. On average, military spending accounted for 6.9 percent of total government expenditure in 2025, down slightly from 7.0 percent in 2024. Per capita military spending worldwide reached $352 in 2025.
Global military expenditure grew in 2025 despite a decline in U.S. spending, which nonetheless remained the highest in the world. Germany moved up from fifth place in 2024 to fourth in 2025, with a defense budget of $114 billion. A sharp increase in European spending, combined with sustained growth in Asia and Oceania, more than offset the reduction in U.S. expenditures over the year, SIPRI noted in a press release. Excluding the United States, global military spending rose by 9.2 percent in 2025.
SIPRI, an independent nonprofit organization, has compiled regional and national military expenditure data for 2025, along with trends over the decade from 2016 to 2025, in a fact sheet. The figures are drawn from the updated SIPRI Military Expenditure Database.
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