Military spending

Up in arms

The world's biggest military spenders

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Readers' comments


Leonidas King

The world owes America a debt of gratitude for facilitating global free trade by keeping the sea-lanes open with its Navy.


It's unfortunate that the Economist does not have further data and can only tell us that the USA spends more than the next 14 largest military spenders. By the looks of this chart, it would seem safe to say that the USA spends more than the next 30 or so countries (or 100?). It would be nice to have more comprehensive data, if not only we could see just how many countries it would take to attain USA level military spending.

Spending 45% of all defense spending worldwide is staggering though. If that number was 50%, it would mean the USA spends more than ALL other countries surly, 14 is an understatement, to say the least.


We will go broke in style! A lesson to others: you cannot help those who are hell bent on destroying themselves. Just get out of the way. Nobody can help us. The "defense" spending is larded with military version of pork: all the bases and baselettes around the world, all the airstrips, vehicle maintenance shops in jungles, and the roads that need to be maintained through those jungles, so that we can save the world for the military contractors. And the armies upon armies of the "non-governmental" organizations, that one way or the other get money from our government, who else. We are the only suckers that were lured to live off credit, while the real money was spent on good old boys and their contracts to ship refrigerators to our far away imperial outposts. Those are the places straight out of Star Wars, where every kind of bottom-feeding scum lurches in shadows. Just visit Kosovo, to see the happy marriage between criminal cartel, and an empire. The one our leaders praise as "democracy", while the ruling cartel sells children into sex slavery, peddle heroin from Afghanistan, and harvest human organs from kidnapped victims to supply the rich clients world-wide. That is what our politicians support, as they have no choice. The money making machine that is our "defense" budget is a cancer that is going to destroy our economy, as we are broke. We are really, really broke. I am not sure which part of that word we do not understand. And if other countries stop buying our "valuable" debt, where are we going to find money just to pay the interest? And before this years is up, we need probably another trillion?
Is there any way we can grow up, and stop being cheated by our own representatives who vote for "defence" spending, that is, the most grotesque lard filled pork-barrel ever concieved by mankind. Or we are just going to talk rubbish about our shiny military, and let these leeches bleed us dry via thousands upon thousands of bleeding capillars that is our defense spending.


"All this spending and still no Tesla Coils, no Ion Cannons. I'm disappointed, America. Where are the weapons that my childhood promised?"

I fully agree!


I feel more comfortable with the "US" in that yellow column than Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, or a host of others.


It's not easy to police the world's ocean trade routes and keep worldwide peace, and it's not cheap either.


It is a pity that the arms race is on the rise again. When will world leaders (developed nations) understand that new arms means new terrorism and gorilla challenges. Even in the face of world economic meltdown and all the socio-economic challenges in the third world nations, industrialized nations continue on the part of building more sophisticated arms.
Well these arms eventually find themselves in the hands of the wrong groups who probably have found haven in the poor nations and the vicious circle continues. let's try and re-distribute world wealth and terrorism and other international vices will find it hard to get fanatic adherents. I think America should re-think its approach to the terrorism fight.
It will even cost industrialized nations less the help others than the evil the arms race eventually breed

Lord Lucan

This chart has always been breath-taking. It amazes me that the US sees it necessary to outspend the next 14 countries' defence budgets combined. The US has been very rarely the subject of direct assault by an aggressor and it has been wasteful in wars in foreign lands. Surely this budget needs to be pulled back, especially in a time in which the US budget deficit is set to top 10% of GDP?

Anthony Probus

America's gigantic defense spending is not unequivocally bad - a big guy occasionally picking a fight with one or two little guys is better than little guys being at each other's throat all the time.

And I am no expert, but it appears to me that the US can carry out its big guy obligations and at the same time cut down on its military spending burden by threatening to nuke all aggressors against itself or its allies, and only keeping a military force that's capable of doing this - but this would be a bit risky, wouldn't it?




Waste of money...this is why the U.S. is in the midst of a financial crisis and a balance-of-payments crisis...we cannot afford to be the guarantor of international security...let other countries start paying their own way and then maybe we can afford a national healthcare program...until then, we can't afford investment in public education, healthcare, social security until we chop this military budget in half.

M. Otero.

Does anyone else outside the US feel slight discomfort? I mean, all this money better come to some use or its a pretty stupid investment.

Were this another planet I'd say the big guy is about to squash the little guys... right?


So the U.S. tax payers know where their money goes.The stimulus package can add a bill that distribute one gun per family to boost the economy

Robert J. Eletto

The chart is not up yet; but these statistics are still pretty amazing. Will America continue to aggress - without any real concept of where that aggression leaves them strategically - to further buttress their aerospace / defense sector? It wouldn't be anything new (i.e. the last 8 years) but it will be interesting to see what role it will play in America's stagnant economy in years to come.



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