US Still Leads the World in Military Spending
Budget

US Still Leads the World in Military Spending

ISSEI KATO

The U.S. has long spent more on its military than any other country in the world, and that trend continued in 2017, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

U.S. military expenditures in 2017 came to $610 billion, unchanged from the year before.

The U.S. accounted for more than a third of global defense spending, while the five biggest spenders – the U.S., China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India – accounted for 60 percent. Of that group, only Russia decreased its spending in 2017; Russian military expenditures fell by 20 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to the report.

Global military spending rose to a post-Cold War high of $1.7 trillion in 2017, an increase of 1.1 percent over the year before. That represents 2.2 percent of global GDP, the report notes, or about $230 per person. 

TOP READS FROM THE FISCAL TIMES