Japan’s About-Face: Data: Global Military Expenditures

wayne taylor — Sat, 08 Jul 2000 13:52:47 +0000

“Military expenditure” covers all expenditure on: the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces; defense ministries and other government agencies involved in defense projects; paramilitary forces that are trained, equipped and available for military operations; and military space activities.

The top 20 countries ranked by global military expenditure in 2007, in millions of constant 2005 US dollars

In 2006 Chinese military spending surpassed that of Japan for the first time, while as late as 1999, Chinese military spending was only half of that of Japan. (Source: www.sipri.org)

Global military expenditures for select countries in 2006, as percentage of gross domestic product (GDP)

While the U.S. spends 4% of its GDP on its military, Japan’s spending has only recently surpassed 1% of its GDP.

Here is the rest of the world, ranked by military expenditure in millions of USD in 2006.


COUNTRY	Military expenditure as percentage of GDP	Military expenditure in millions of constant 2005 US dollars
Iran	4.6	7,677
Syria	5.1	7,328
Poland	2	6,506
Singapore	4.7	5,862
Sweden	1.5	5,435
Colombia	4	5,240
North Korea	na	5,217**
Chile	3.6	4,851
Norway	1.5	4,826
Pakistan	3.2	4,465
Belgium	1.1	4,197
South Africa	1.5	3,978
Kuwait	4 *	3,909 *
Oman	11.2	3,905
Indonesia	1.3 *	3,802 *
Denmark	1.4	3,792
Portugal	1.9 *	3,660 *
Mexico	0.4	3,262
Switzerland	0.8	3,157
Malaysia	2.2	3,054
Algeria	2.7	2,992
Finland	1.4	2,793
Iraq	7.8 *	2,783 *
Ukraine	2.8	2,699
Egypt	2.7	2,674
Austria	0.8	2,580
Czech Republic	1.7	2,253
Thailand	1.1 *	2,060 *
Morocco	3.7	2,049
Romania	1.8	2,036
Venezuela	1.2	1,884
Argentina	0.9	1,776
Hungary	1.2	1,340
Peru	1.3	1,193
New Zealand	1.1	1,177
Ireland	0.5	1,135
Lebanon	4.6 *	999 *
Ecuador	2.3	922
Philippines	0.9	880
Slovakia	1.7	835
Croatia	1.9	793
Yemen, Arab Republic	4.3	715
Sri Lanka	2.9	713
Nigeria	0.6	703
Kazakhstan	1	693
Bangladesh	1	684
Bulgaria	2.3	663
Jordan	5	660
Azerbaijan	3.6	625
Slovenia	1.6	589
Belarus	1.7	588
Libya	1.1	568
Bahrain	3.5	528
Tunisia	1.4	423
Georgia	5.2	362
Latvia	1.8	342
Lithuania	1.2	338
Luxembourg	0.8 *	319 *
Kenya	1.6	313
Botswana	2.7	290
Ethiopia	2.1	263
Brunei Darussalam	3.5 *	260 *
Côte d’Ivoire	1.5	259
Estonia	1.6	251
Cameroon	1.4	242
Cyprus	1.4	239
Uruguay	1.3	219
Namibia	3.1	202
Uganda	2	196
Dominican Republic	0.5	194
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.7	165
Armenia	2.8	157
Bolivia	1.4	149
Tanzania	1.1	149
Senegal	1.6	144
Nepal	1.7 *	143 *
Congo, Democratic Republic of the	1.9 *	142 *
Guatemala	0.4	137
Albania	1.6	135
Zambia	1.7	135
Mali	2.2	129
Macedonia	2	121
Afghanistan	1.5	119
El Salvador	0.6	110
Zimbabwe	1.9 *	107 *
Gabon	1.1	106
Kyrgyzstan	3.2	83.3
Congo, Republic of	1.2	80.8
Mauritania	3	77.3
Cambodia	1.1	76.5
Jamaica	0.7	70.6
Ghana	0.6	69
Burkina Faso	1.2	68.7
Paraguay	0.8	63.7
Mozambique	0.8	55.9
Chad	0.9	54.2
Honduras	0.6	52.4
Madagascar	1	52.1
Rwanda	1.9	49.7
Bahamas	0.8	47.1
Benin	1 *	46.8 *
Fiji	1.4	42.7
Malta	0.7	42.6
Burundi	4.7	41.4
Malawi	1.7 *	38.9 *
Mongolia	1.5	36.5
Lesotho	2.4	35.4
Nicaragua	0.7	33.4
Papua New Guinea	0.5	29.4
Sierra Leone	2.1 *	26.4 *
Barbados	0.8 *	24.6 *
Seychelles	1.9	14.6
Mauritius	0.2	10.7
Cape Verde	0.6	6.7
Liberia	0.8 *	4.6 *
Tonga	1.4	3.3
Iceland	0	0
Angola	3.7 *	na
Costa Rica	0	na
2006 data for Belize, Central African Republic, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Niger, Panama, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia is unavailable.
* denotes estimated totals ** from CIA World Factbook, 2005 All other information from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) (http://milexdata.sipri.org/)
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Japan’s About-Face: Data: Global Military Expenditures