Record increase in military spending in 2023. The ranking of the States

It’s not a surprise. With two wars underway in the Mediterranean and European areas that indirectly involve the world’s greats – with billions in supplies to Israel and Ukraine by the United States and to Ukraine by European countries – it was not difficult to predict that 2023 would pass recorded as the year of the record increase in military spending in the world. The Report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) certifies this. HERE IS THE FULL DOCUMENT

The highest increase in the last 15 years

Sipri is the most authoritative independent research and analysis institute on global security. He summed up: last year, 2,443 billion dollars, equal to 2,293 billion euros, were spent on armaments. Never so many. The equivalent of 2.3% of global domestic product. The increase was 6.8% over the previous year: never so high since 2009. Also for the first time since 2009, the increase was recorded in all five geographical regions of the planet. “There is no area of ​​the world where things have improved” observes Nan Tian, ​​a Sipri researcher.

In what the Pope defined as the piecemeal Third World War, there were already many conflicts – in the African and Asian peripheries of geopolitics – but in the last two years, states equipped with nuclear weapons have directly entered the battlefield, such as the Russian Federation and Israel. Supported, the first, by supplies from two other military powers: North Korea, also equipped with nuclear weapons, and Iran which is preparing to become one. In order to support Ukraine, NATO urged member countries to allocate at least 2% of their gross domestic product to defense. The American Congress has just passed a further aid package to Kiev, over 80% of which is military support. Of these, 29 billion will go to the US arms industry for the production of weapons that will have to replace, in the strategic stocks, those sent to Ukraine.

The states that spend the most and Europe

In absolute value, the states that have spent the most are, in order: United States, China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia.

The leaders of the ranking are therefore United States with an investment of 860 billion euros (+2.3% compared to 2022), covering 37% of global spending alone. In second place is the China, which spends a third of the US on weapons: 278 billion euros (+6%), equal to 12% of global spending. Followed by Russianwhich last year spent 102 billion euros (+24% on 2022), dedicating 5.9% of its GDP to weapons and covering 4.5% of global spending.

He placed fifth Saudi Arabia (+9%), Middle Eastern leader for military spending, followed by Israel (+24%).

L’Ukraine it is the eighth largest arms investor in the world: it spends 33% of its GDP on defence, equal to over 60 billion euros (+51 in the last year). He received military aid worth almost 32 billion euros.

The Japan, once neutral and pacifist, has become the world’s sixth largest importer of weapons. In the ranking of military spending he is in tenth place (+11%). Spending also increased Taiwan (+11%). The Canada is in sixteenth place.

The total expense of 31 NATO member countries amounts to 1,260 billion euros, or 55% of global spending. 68% is covered by the USA, 28% by European countries (the highest level in a decade) with 11 states dedicating more than 2% of their GDP to defence. The one stands out Poland, which records the highest annual increase in Europe: 75%. Strong increase also in Spainwhere last year military spending was 22.2 billion euros (+9.8%), equal to 1.5% of GDP.

In Latin America the state that spends the most, in absolute value, on weapons is Brazileighteenth worldwide with spending of 21.5 billion euros (+3.1%).