The steep increase in global defense spending is leveling off somewhat. The largest growth in decades was recorded in 2024, but the United States suppressed growth last year because it no longer supported Ukraine, an authoritative research institute calculated.
Military expenditure has been breaking record after record for eleven years, but in 2025 the increase (adjusted for inflation) was limited to 2.5 percent, reports the Swedish knowledge institute SIPRI. That was 9.4 percent a year earlier. The US even spent less than in 2024.
On balance, the much higher defense budgets in Europe, Asia and Oceania still led to global growth. With all the current hot spots, growth will undoubtedly continue this year, SIPRI expects.
The US spent 7.5 percent less last year than in 2024, SIPRI notes in its annual report. Tens of billions did not go to Ukraine, as in previous years. The American defense budget is a lot higher this year, and President Donald Trump has even proposed a huge increase for the following year.
Defense budget increased
Most of the global growth comes from Europe. Russia and Ukraine also invested considerably more money in their war. Russia’s defense budget last year amounted to 7.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP, the size of the economy) and Ukraine even to 20 percent.
Of the 29 European NATO countries, 22 met the old NATO standard of 2 percent, SIPRI notes. According to NATO, which has its own standards, they all achieved them. Now that European member states, under great pressure from the US, have promised to significantly increase their defense budget within ten years, smoke screens and creative accounting are looming, SIPRI believes.
Asian countries will also spend considerably more on their armed forces in 2025. China, with the largest expenditure after the US, spent 7.4 percent more. Rival Japan grew by 9.7 percent and Taiwan, claimed by China, by 14 percent.
