Global military spending reached a record $2,887 billion in 2025, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Monday. Europe was the primary driver, with expenditure rising 14% to $864 billion, the fastest annual increase among NATO’s European members since 1953.
Global military spending rose again in 2025 as states responded to another year of wars, uncertainty and geopolitical upheaval with large-scale armament drives.
Read more ➡️ https://t.co/v3R3B7b1MV#SIPRI #MilitaryExpenditure #MilitarySpending #Peace #GDAMS2026 pic.twitter.com/XlxdFFyC6Q— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 27, 2026
Sharp rise in European spending amid war and new @NATO spending target: The main contributor to the global increase in military spending in 2025 was a 14% rise in Europe to $864 billion.
New #SIPRI data out now ➡️ https://t.co/v3R3B7bzCt#SIPRI #MilitaryExpenditure… pic.twitter.com/rODddWnQ3m
— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 27, 2026
SIPRI’s tally diverges from NATO’s own figures. The alliance has stated all 32 of its members met the 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) defense spending threshold in 2025, but SIPRI counts only 23 as having actually reached it. “NATO members have a strong political incentive to demonstrate their commitment to the alliance, potentially through inflated figures,” SIPRI researcher Jade Guiberteau Ricard told Euractiv.
SIPRI challenges claim all NATO allies reached 2%, warns of ‘creative accounting’ https://t.co/f7O4WfdVu9 pic.twitter.com/8QFpFNLmjd
— Euractiv (@Euractiv) April 27, 2026
The discrepancy sharpens against NATO’s new 5% of GDP target, set at the June 2025 Hague summit, which permits up to 1.5 percentage points for broadly defined “defense- and security-related” expenditures.
SIPRI cited Italy’s reported attempt to classify construction of a bridge to Sicily as qualifying defense spending. Because NATO does not publish disaggregated data, independent verification is increasingly difficult, the institute said.
U.S. spending fell 7.5% to $954 billion as no new Ukraine supplemental appropriations were approved in 2025. SIPRI program director Nan Tian said the decline is “likely to be short-lived,” with Congress already approving more than $1 trillion for 2026.
In Asia, Taiwan raised its defense budget 14% to $18.2 billion, its largest annual increase since at least 1988. Japan’s spending rose 9.7% to $62.2 billion, the highest military burden as a share of GDP the country has carried since 1958.
Asia and Oceania sees fastest military spending growth since 2009. Learn more➡️ https://t.co/pp15b7hO9q
🇨🇳#China +7.4% to $336 billion
🇯🇵#Japan +9.7% to $62.2 billion
🇹🇼#Taiwan +14% to $18.2 billion#SIPRI #MilitaryExpenditure #DefenceBudget #GlobalSecurity #Geopolitics #NATO…— SIPRI (@SIPRIorg) April 27, 2026
Russia and Ukraine each recorded their highest-ever military expenditure as a share of government spending, at an estimated 20% and 63% of total outlays, respectively. “Their spending is likely to keep growing in 2026 if the war continues,” SIPRI researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato said.
