World military spending in 2025 increased by 2.9% and amounted to more than $2.8 trillion, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Defense spending is growing for the 11th consecutive year. Compared to 2024, the growth in world military spending has decreased (this figure was 9.7% last year), mainly due to a reduction in US spending. This is reported by Radio Liberty, the PromPolitInform portal reports.
The share of military spending in global GDP reached 2.5%, the highest figure since 2009. According to the report, 80% of world military spending ($2.3 trillion) falls on 15 countries. 58% of the global figure (1.6 trillion) falls on five countries – the USA, China, Russia, Germany and India.
The first place was again taken by the USA ($954 billion), however, compared to 2024, this figure decreased by 7.5%. According to SIPRI, the decrease occurred, in particular, due to the fact that no new financial military assistance to Ukraine was approved during 2025. At the same time, the institute’s analysts believe that the decline in US military spending will be short-lived.
Ukraine, according to the results of 2025, took seventh place in military spending – this figure increased by 20% compared to 2024, to $84.1 billion (40% of the country’s GDP).
Russia’s military spending in 2025 increased by 5.9% to $190 billion (according to this indicator, the Russian Federation remained in third place – after the USA and China). This is the slowest rate of growth since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine. In 2024, according to SIPRI, Russia’s military spending amounted to $149 billion (an increase of 38% compared to 2023). SIPRI notes that the military burden on the Russian economy remains high, as before – 7.5% of GDP and 20% of all government spending.
SIPRI notes that the main factor in the global increase in military spending in 2025 was the increase in this indicator in Europe. The 29 European NATO members spent a total of $559 billion on defense last year, and in 22 of them military spending amounted to at least 2% of GDP.
The leader in military spending was Germany (it took fourth place in the global ranking). Berlin’s defense spending in 2025 increased by 24%, to $114 billion. For the first time since 1990, this indicator in Germany exceeded the 2% of GDP mark and amounted to 2.3%. Spain’s military spending increased to $ 40.2 billion (an increase of 50% compared to 2024),
“In 2025, military spending of European NATO members increased faster than at any time since 1953, reflecting Europe’s desire for self-sufficiency along with increasing pressure from the United States to share the burden within the alliance,” said one of the authors of the report, researcher of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program Jade Guiberto Ricard.
In early March, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the PURL program, under which Ukraine purchases weapons from the United States, is working, but the intensity of hostilities in Iran will affect the number of air defenses for Ukraine.
In the summer of 2025, the US and NATO signed a PURL agreement (Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List), which provides for the sending of American weapons to Ukraine at the expense of European countries, the NATO process is coordinated. According to the Ukrainian authorities, in 2025 the amount of contributions to the PURL program amounted to $ 4.3 billion.
