Analysts from SIPRI presented a report, saying that the world’s military expenditure in 2022 increased by 3.7% and reached $2240 billion, which is a historical record. These figures turned out to be a result of the largest and the most intensive increase in military spending in Europe in the last 30 years. However, the leaders in expenditure are still the USA, China and Russia.
Experts from the institute say 2022 became the eighth consecutive year of military spending growth. The sharpest rise in spending was observed in Europe (+13%) due to Russian and Ukrainian spending. However, their conflict strongly affected other European countries and led to significant growth in their spending. Thus, Military expenditure by states in Central and Western Europe totalled $345 billion in 2022. In real terms, spending by these states for the first time surpassed that in 1989, as the cold war was ending, and was 30% higher than in 2013. This is not the end – apart from the states who had already increased their spending, there are others, who announced plans to raise spending levels over periods of up to a decade.
‘The continuous rise in global military expenditure in recent years is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world…. States are bolstering military strength in response to a deteriorating security environment, which they do not foresee improving in the near future.’
Dr Nan Tian, Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme
So, the tendency is going to stay – military spending in Europe is going to grow further. Some of the sharpest increases among European states were seen in Finland (+36%), Lithuania (+27%), Sweden (+12%) and Poland (+11%). However, the largest increase was seen in Ukraine – its military spending reached $44 billion in 2022. At 640%, this was the highest single-year increase in a country’s military expenditure ever recorded in SIPRI data. Now, the military burden for Ukraine is 34% of GDP, instead of 3.2% a year earlier.
Russian military spending grew by an estimated 9.2% in 2022, to around $86.4 billion. This was equivalent to 4.1% of Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022, up from 3.7% of GDP in 2021. The authors state that figures released by Russia in late 2022 show that spending on national defence, the largest component of Russian military expenditure, was already 34% higher, in nominal terms, than in budgetary plans drawn up in 2021. Thus, they conclude that the conflict with Ukraine ‘has cost Russia far more than it anticipated’.
Anyway, the United States still remain the world’s biggest military spender. In 2022 the US military spending reached $877 billion, which was 39% of the global military spending and three times more than the amount spent by China, the world’s second-largest spender. The 0.7% real-term increase in US spending in 2022 would have been even greater had it not been for the highest levels of inflation. The US allocated $19.9 billion to financial military aid to Ukraine, $295 billion to military operations and maintenance, $264 billion to procurement and research and development, and $167 billion to military personnel.
The growth in military spending also occurred in Asia and Oceania. The combined military expenditure of countries in Asia and Oceania was $575 billion. This was 2.7% more than in 2021 and 45% more than in 2013, continuing an uninterrupted upward trend dating back to at least 1989.
China remained the world’s second-largest military spender, allocating an estimated $292 billion in 2022. This was 4.2% more than in 2021 and 63% more than in 2013. China’s military expenditure has increased for 28 consecutive years. Japan’s military spending increased by 5.9% between 2021 and 2022, reaching $46.0 billion, or 1.1% of GDP. This was the highest level of Japanese military spending since 1960. A new national security strategy published in 2022 sets out ambitious plans to increase Japan’s military capability over the coming decade in response to perceived growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia.
Source: SIPRI
