5 Countries With the Highest Military Expenditure

How much a country spends on its military budget is a reflection of a number of factors, including the size of the economy, the perceived military threat or opportunity, the influence of the private sector on government policy and the overall priorities of a society.

When we look at the absolute spending amount, the United States is by far the largest spender. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Yearbook 2011, America spent nearly $700 billion in 2010. This accounts for about 43% of the entire global military spending and is nearly 6 times more than the amount spent by the next largest, China. In fact, the United States spends more on its military than the total spent by the second largest (China), third largest (United Kingdom), fourth largest (France), fifth largest (Russia)... and fifteenth largest (Turkey) combined.

So, while in absolute dollar amount the United States is an extreme outlier regarding its military spending, it is more appropriate to examine the normalized spending since comparing the absolute amount each country spends on its military another isn't very fair. After all, we would certainly expect that a large country with one of the world's largest economies like the Russian Federation would spend more than a small country like Lithuania. But what is the most appropriate way to normalize the spending?

If we look at the military expenditure per capita, we can control for differences in population between different countries. In this comparison we see once again that the United States is an outlier, spending an average of over $2,000 per person versus a global average that is about one-tenth that amount. Among the top 15 countries with the highest military expenditure, only two other countries had more than $1,000 per person spent on military, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

If we chose to normalize by the size of the economy, rather than size of the population, we continue to see that the United States is an outlier. America spends 4.8% of its GDP on the military or about double the global average. In fact, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the top 15 for military expenditure that has a higher percent of its GDP dedicated to the military.

It is clear by any measure that America spends much more on its military than other countries. American military expenses have dramatically increased in the last decade due to the wars with the budget for defense more than twice what it spent in 2000 and about 20 percent of its entire federal budget.

America's military strength is critical for its stability and success in the future but there is a balance. A nation can't spend all its resources on one aspect of society and ignore the others. A nation cannot spend all its resources on the elderly and not attend to the next generation. A nation cannot spend nearly all its resources on a small percent of the population and ignore the vast majority.

Will the failure of the super committee really lead to a significant cut in the massive military budget? It's well past time for politicians to take an honest look at the numbers and find the right balance.

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• #5 Russian Federation

  Russia spends about $59 Billion on military expenses, less than 10% of what the United States spends. Russia spends more on military than most other countries on both a per capita basis ($410) and as a percent of GDP (4.0%).

• #4 France

  France spends about $59 Billion on military expenses, less than 10% of what the United States spends. France spends more on military than most other countries on a per capita basis ($912) and less as a percent of GDP (2.3%).

• # 3 United Kingdom

  The United Kingdom spends about $60 Billion on military expenses, less than 10% of what the United States spends. The UK spends more on military than most other countries on both a per capita basis ($961) and as a percent of GDP (2.7%).

• #2 China

  China spends about $119 Billion on military expenses, roughly 7% of the entire world's expenses and less than 20% of the amount the US spends. China spends less on military than most other countries on both a per capita basis ($89) and on a percent of GDP (2.1%).

• #1 United States of America

  The United States spends about $700 Billion on military expenses or about 43% of the world's total. Its expenditure per capita ($2,240) and its percent of GDP spent on military (4.8%) are much higher than most other countries in the world. American military expenses have dramatically increased in the last decade due to the wars with the budget for defense more than twice what it spent in 2000 and about 20 percent of its entire federal budget.

 

 

 

Follow Howard Steven Friedman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/howardsfriedman

Comments

[Leewhite82]

11:21 PM on 01/04/2012

It is a tax payer funded jobs bill and a way for rich people to get richer pay paying off lawmakers to approve pointless and redundant "defence" programs.

[morgan kinsley]

07:29 AM on 12/02/2011

Im am VERY offended by this article.. its nice to see my country supports me serving my country.

[Raldor]

04:19 AM on 12/02/2011

To all of you using the word 'defense', please note that the correct English spelling of this word is 'defence'.

Remember that the UK and USA are divided by a common language!

[Howard Steven Friedman]

06:33 AM on 12/02/2011

Your comment adds a little humour to a sombre subject.

[Alexey Braguine]

06:00 PM on 12/06/2011

It should be noted that the pentagoons not only don't only don't know how to spell defence but don't know the meaning of the word. So they practice offence thinking it's defense.

Klausewitz, where are you?

[Alfredo Larios]

04:53 PM on 12/01/2011

I bet if we cut the military by 20% we would be out of this depression like in 3 years.

[jymfrancais]

01:31 PM on 12/01/2011

Its obscene.

[greyhound2]

11:44 AM on 12/01/2011

The United States has not realized that the nature of warfare has changed. No longer do countries field large standing armies, or engage fighter jet, tank or naval battleships. Not able to shoulder the high cost of modern equipment, conflict has changed to guerilla units avoiding direct contact with small, hit and run campaigns where the combatants melt into the population during the day. The MID complex, however, has no interest in low tech, low cost solutions.

[any mouse]

09:33 AM on 12/01/2011

Basically the US is WASTING over 50% of the money it spends on the military, therefore we could immediately cut the military budget in HALF with now lose in effectiveness.

[oceanwalker100]

08:32 AM on 12/01/2011

Could be down size Why do we keep bases all over the world,so we can keep giving the countries we are in money and aid.If the USA have to than there is no need for the UN.I though they were the peace keepers.

[Gonzo333]

07:57 AM on 12/01/2011

And we wonder why we are broke. I know let's destroy the poor and middle class to make up the difference!

[Chris Herz]

07:18 AM on 12/01/2011

The US state media has most of our people convinced that Russia, China and Iran will hit the beaches of Southern California one day after the US stops increasing the defense budget.

[Ramkshrestha]

05:01 AM on 12/01/2011

Can we do anything to them? If we want to do something to them they will do something to us. That's the problem

[Robert Neilson]

12:51 AM on 12/01/2011

Israel spends more per capita on defense then The USA

[Gonzo333]

07:58 AM on 12/01/2011

This is an assinine statement. How much of the " per capita" comes from the US?

[Magic 62]

09:47 AM on 12/01/2011

About $500 per capita or close to 20% of Israeli defence budget.

[jymfrancais]

01:32 PM on 12/01/2011

How much of that is US money?

[mariusvinchi]

12:32 AM on 12/01/2011

No matter what side of the political spectrum you might fall on, one thing we ALL must agree on is how unsustainable our defense spending has become.

"Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it."

Let's not forget that the Soviet Union collapsed under the financial weight of playing tit-for-tat with us during the cold war. If we don't take that lesson to heart, we too will collapse.

[not2 good]

09:36 PM on 11/30/2011

Do we spend it all to combat the Iranian threat? I realize this spending keeps some people employed but the money spend would be better spend on our infrastructure. It would definitely put a big dent in the unemployment picture. I am also curious why the Brits and the French have such large expenditures. Who in the world is their enemy? It could not possibly be China. They need it for the loans to keep the military complex in business.

[BraveYusuf]

08:05 PM on 11/30/2011

And we still can't defeat the likes of the Taliban. Let's pull out of Afghanistan and everywhere else and OUTSOURCE out wars. It will be a lot of cheaper. And NO American deaths!

:)

[Robert Lee Harrington]

01:30 AM on 12/01/2011

Drones.....

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/08/60minutes/main5001439.shtml

[Magic 62]

09:51 AM on 12/01/2011

Drones only work against extremely low tech adversaries like the Taliban that can't even aford shoes ... and we are still not winning anything over there.