(STACKER) – In the wake of World War II, 12 countries scattered throughout Europe and North America came together to form the North American Treaty Organization, a military alliance whose goal was to deter the Soviet Union from its conquest of Europe. It was founded on the principle of collective defense, which means that every member of NATO will come to the aid of any other member that is attacked. That’s one reason why, for example, French and British troops fought in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11—and why NATO has not gotten involved in the Ukraine-Russia war.
This theory of collective defense requires collective spending so that every ally has a military that’s fully prepared to help when called to do so. While it’s almost universally agreed that some military spending is necessary for security purposes, especially given the ever-rising threats of terrorism around the world, it’s still unclear how much defense spending is adequate.
Stacker ranked the 50 countries spending the most on their military, based on estimates from 2020 data (released in 2022) from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute via The World Bank. The list provides a sweeping view of pressing conflicts around the world today.
It is often difficult to pinpoint what a country spends on its military in a given year. In 2002, NATO defined military expenditure to include current spending on the armed forces (including peacekeeping and paramilitary forces), defense ministries and other government agencies involved in defense, military space activities, personnel costs (pensions and social services), aid, research and development, operation and maintenance, and procurement of military supplies.
Despite that lengthy definition, however, coming up with an accurate calculation can be a formidable task. One country might consider certain costs to be military expenditures while another might classify the same expenses as another kind of spending. In addition, because some countries aren’t transparent about their military budgets, the data experts put forth may not match the figures released by governments.
Still, getting even a general handle on which countries are spending the most on their militaries is helpful in discovering where hotspots are—from confrontations in the South China Sea to clashes between Russia and Ukraine to counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East—and identifying, for better or worse, the nations with the most firepower.
One important note— NATO itself has a military budget, which all 30 member states contribute to. For the 2022 fiscal year, that budget is set at a little over $1.74 billion.
#50. New Zealand
– Military expenditure (2020): $3.0 billion
#49. South Africa
– Military expenditure (2020): $3.2 billion
#48. Czech Republic
– Military expenditure (2020): $3.3 billion
#47. Austria
– Military expenditure (2020): $3.6 billion
#46. Philippines
– Military expenditure (2020): $3.7 billion
#45. Malaysia
– Military expenditure (2020): $3.8 billion
#44. Finland
– Military expenditure (2020): $4.1 billion
#43. Egypt, Arab Rep.
– Military expenditure (2020): $4.5 billion
#42. Bangladesh
– Military expenditure (2020): $4.6 billion
#41. Chile
– Military expenditure (2020): $4.6 billion
#40. Portugal
– Military expenditure (2020): $4.6 billion
#39. Morocco
– Military expenditure (2020): $4.8 billion
#38. Denmark
– Military expenditure (2020): $5.0 billion
#37. Greece
– Military expenditure (2020): $5.3 billion
#36. Belgium
– Military expenditure (2020): $5.5 billion
#35. Switzerland
– Military expenditure (2020): $5.7 billion
#34. Romania
– Military expenditure (2020): $5.7 billion
#33. Ukraine
– Military expenditure (2020): $5.9 billion
#32. Mexico
– Military expenditure (2020): $6.1 billion
#31. Sweden
– Military expenditure (2020): $6.5 billion
#30. Oman
– Military expenditure (2020): $6.7 billion
#29. Kuwait
– Military expenditure (2020): $6.9 billion
#28. Iraq
– Military expenditure (2020): $7.0 billion
#27. Norway
– Military expenditure (2020): $7.1 billion
#26. Thailand
– Military expenditure (2020): $7.3 billion
#25. Colombia
– Military expenditure (2020): $9.2 billion
#24. Indonesia
– Military expenditure (2020): $9.4 billion
#23. Algeria
– Military expenditure (2020): $9.7 billion
#22. Pakistan
– Military expenditure (2020): $10.4 billion
#21. Singapore
– Military expenditure (2020): $10.9 billion
#20. Netherlands
– Military expenditure (2020): $12.6 billion
#19. Poland
– Military expenditure (2020): $13.0 billion
#18. Iran, Islamic Rep.
– Military expenditure (2020): $15.8 billion
#17. Spain
– Military expenditure (2020): $17.4 billion
#16. Turkey
– Military expenditure (2020): $17.7 billion
#15. Brazil
– Military expenditure (2020): $19.7 billion
#14. Israel
– Military expenditure (2020): $21.7 billion
#13. Canada
– Military expenditure (2020): $22.8 billion
#12. Australia
– Military expenditure (2020): $27.5 billion
#11. Italy
– Military expenditure (2020): $28.9 billion
#10. Korea, Rep.
– Military expenditure (2020): $45.7 billion
#9. Japan
– Military expenditure (2020): $49.1 billion
#8. France
– Military expenditure (2020): $52.7 billion
#7. Germany
– Military expenditure (2020): $52.8 billion
#6. Saudi Arabia
– Military expenditure (2020): $57.5 billion
#5. United Kingdom
– Military expenditure (2020): $59.2 billion
#4. Russian Federation
– Military expenditure (2020): $61.7 billion
#3. India
– Military expenditure (2020): $72.9 billion
#2. China
– Military expenditure (2020): $252.3 billion
#1. United States
– Military expenditure (2020): $778.2 billion
