The Power Index

The 10 Most Militarized Economies in the World

SIPRI released its annual military spending update on April 27, covering 2025 data. Ranked by share of GDP, Ukraine leads at 40% — more than four times the next country on the list. The runner-up is not Russia. It’s Algeria.

Source: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, April 2026. Military spending as a share of GDP, 2025.

Ukraine’s 39.6% is in a category by itself. The gap to #2 is 31 percentage points — the widest spread we’ve charted. In dollar terms, Ukraine is only the seventh-largest military spender. In terms of national effort, no one is close. Defense accounted for 63% of all Ukrainian government expenditure in 2025. Since 2016, the increase is 1,501%.

Algeria at #2 is the real surprise. Algeria is not at war. Its military burden of 8.8% exceeds Russia’s. Twenty-five percent of all government spending goes to defense. The drivers: a long-running rivalry with Morocco and the destabilization of the Sahel, where coups in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have redrawn the regional security map.

Azerbaijan and Armenia sit side by side at #6 and #7. They signed a framework peace agreement in 2025. Their military budgets tell a different story.

This list is a map of active conflict. Ukraine is fighting Russia. Russia is fighting Ukraine. Israel spent much of 2025 engaged in Gaza. Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, and Jordan sit in the Gulf and Levant, where instability is structural. War — or the proximity of war — drives burden.

The United States, the world’s largest spender at $954 billion, ranks just 11th by this measure. It accounts for a third of the global total. But 3.1% of a $31 trillion economy produces enormous dollars without an enormous burden.

The global military burden hit 2.5% of GDP in 2025, the highest since 2009. European spending rose 14%. Asia and Oceania rose 8.1%. Africa rose 8.5%. This is not one region arming. It’s everywhere.

1,501%

The increase in Ukraine’s military spending from 2016 to 2025. No other country in the SIPRI database comes close.

11th

Where the United States ranks by military burden. It spends $954 billion — a third of the global total — but devotes just 3.1% of GDP.

2.3%

Germany’s military burden in 2025. Above 2% for the first time since 1990. A decade ago: 1.1%.

31

Consecutive years of Chinese military spending increases. Yet China’s burden is 1.7% of GDP — below the world average.

$2,887 billion

Total global military spending in 2025. The 11th consecutive year of growth. That works out to $352 for every person alive.

NATO agreed on new spending targets in 2025. All 32 members now meet the old 2% threshold, up from just three in 2014. Germany crossed it for the first time since 1990. Spain did the same for the first time since 1994. The SIPRI Yearbook, due this summer, will carry the full country-by-country analysis. The direction is one-way. We’ll be watching.

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