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The world spent almost $2 trillion on defense in 2020
By: Aaron Mehta 22 hours ago
18
Chinese military spending has increased for the 26th straight year, according to SIPRI research. (Li He/Xinhua via AP)
WASHINGTON — Global spending on militaries rose to $1.981 trillion last year, an increase of 2.6 percent over the previous year’s figure, according to new research by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
That total is the highest since the think tank SIPRI began tracking military spending in 1988. The top five largest military spenders contributed to 62 percent of that total.
The U.S. ($778 billion, 39 percent of overall spending) easily outpaced its closest competitors, with China ($252 billion, 13 percent), India ($72.9 billion, 3.7 percent), Russia ($61.7 billion, 3.1 percent) and the United Kingdom ($59.2 billion, 3 percent) rounding out the top group.
Overall, the U.S. and China represent 52 percent of all military spending for the year.
Rounding out the top 10 are Saudi Arabia ($57.5 billion), Germany ($52.8 billion), France, ($52.7 billion), Japan ($49.1 billion) and South Korea ($45.7 billion). No other country accounted for 2 percent or more of overall military expenditure in 2020.
While 2020 was an unprecedented year globally, military expenditures stayed steady overall, said Diego Lopes da Silva, a researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme.
“We can say with some certainty that the pandemic did not have a significant impact on global military spending in 2020,’ Lopes da Silva said in a news release. “It remains to be seen whether countries will maintain this level of military spending through a second year of the pandemic.”
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COVID-19 did have one impact on the data set: As global economies struggled in 2020, defense spending as a percentage of national gross domestic product reached a global average of 2.4 percent in 2020, up from 2.2 percent in 2019 — the biggest year-on-year rise since 2009, according to SIPRI.
While that change was due more to GDPs coming down than to nations actively increasing their defense spending, it did allow three NATO nations to break the 2 percent GDP spending target that had previously not done so, by SIPRI’s estimation.
Researchers relay on estimations for China’s defense spending, but its annual 2020 figures appear to represent a 1.9 percent increase from 2019 — the 26th year in a row that China’s military spending has increased, and the longest such streak SIPRI has tracked. Overall, in the last decade, China has increased its military spending by 76 percent.
www.defensenews.com
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Global
The world spent almost $2 trillion on defense in 2020
By: Aaron Mehta 22 hours ago
18
WASHINGTON — Global spending on militaries rose to $1.981 trillion last year, an increase of 2.6 percent over the previous year’s figure, according to new research by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
That total is the highest since the think tank SIPRI began tracking military spending in 1988. The top five largest military spenders contributed to 62 percent of that total.
The U.S. ($778 billion, 39 percent of overall spending) easily outpaced its closest competitors, with China ($252 billion, 13 percent), India ($72.9 billion, 3.7 percent), Russia ($61.7 billion, 3.1 percent) and the United Kingdom ($59.2 billion, 3 percent) rounding out the top group.
Overall, the U.S. and China represent 52 percent of all military spending for the year.
Rounding out the top 10 are Saudi Arabia ($57.5 billion), Germany ($52.8 billion), France, ($52.7 billion), Japan ($49.1 billion) and South Korea ($45.7 billion). No other country accounted for 2 percent or more of overall military expenditure in 2020.
While 2020 was an unprecedented year globally, military expenditures stayed steady overall, said Diego Lopes da Silva, a researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme.
“We can say with some certainty that the pandemic did not have a significant impact on global military spending in 2020,’ Lopes da Silva said in a news release. “It remains to be seen whether countries will maintain this level of military spending through a second year of the pandemic.”
Sign up for our Early Bird Brief
Get the defense industry's most comprehensive news and information straight to your inbox
Subscribe
COVID-19 did have one impact on the data set: As global economies struggled in 2020, defense spending as a percentage of national gross domestic product reached a global average of 2.4 percent in 2020, up from 2.2 percent in 2019 — the biggest year-on-year rise since 2009, according to SIPRI.
While that change was due more to GDPs coming down than to nations actively increasing their defense spending, it did allow three NATO nations to break the 2 percent GDP spending target that had previously not done so, by SIPRI’s estimation.
Researchers relay on estimations for China’s defense spending, but its annual 2020 figures appear to represent a 1.9 percent increase from 2019 — the 26th year in a row that China’s military spending has increased, and the longest such streak SIPRI has tracked. Overall, in the last decade, China has increased its military spending by 76 percent.
The world spent almost $2 trillion on defense in 2020
The U.S. and China made up more than half of all military spending in 2020.
www.defensenews.com
