GlobalThe world has become more fragmented politically in the past decade, which has heightened global risk and uncertainty. The diminished sense of security has caused many countries to increase military spending. While this may be a rational response for individual countries, collectively, the rise in military spending has been alarming and seems to be leading the world toward even more risk and uncertainty. This in turn may feed the need for more security. In addition, the devotion of so much of the world’s resources to military spending may be damaging for the global economy.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), world annual military expenditure reached $2.8 trillion (in constant 2024 terms) in 2025. That figure represented a 41 percent increase in the past ten years. However, half of that rise occurred in the past three years. We looked at the SIPRI Military Expenditure dataset (available in Haver’s GLSECTOR database) to understand how and why military spending is changing across countries and regions.
Worldwide gains in military spending The rise in military spending has been widespread. Between the years 2022 and 2025, 45 of the top 50 countries in terms of military spending posted increases, with an average gain among that group of 41.8 percent. NATO spending (excluding the US) jumped by 44.7 percent, while non-NATO military spending increased by 29.2 percent.
Surprisingly, US military spending was essentially flat during this time. As a result, US military spending declined as a share of world spending by 6.6 percentage points to 33.5 percent. However, the Trump Administration has proposed a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027, a roughly 60 percent increase from the 2025 spending listed in Figure 1. If that budget is enacted, then in 2027 the US's increase alone would be equivalent to 20 percent of 2025's entire world total. And we know that other countries both in NATO and Asia are ramping up spending as well.
