China Real Military Spending 2025: $335.0bn (SIPRI)
SIPRI's constant-dollar estimate puts China's real military spending at $335.0bn in 2025, equal to 1.72% of GDP.
Key takeaways
- SIPRI's constant-dollar estimate puts China's real military spending at $335.0bn in 2025, or 1.72% of GDP.
- This differs from China's official published defense budget, since national-budget and NATO-definition totals use different scope rules.
- The 2025 figure reflects 7.4% year-on-year growth, above the 5.54% five-year and 5.5% ten-year compound annual growth rates.
- China ranks 2nd globally, with $335.0bn equal to 12.227% of world military spending.
- The $335.0bn figure is SIPRI's own constant-dollar total, not a restatement of Beijing's official budget or a NATO-definition estimate.
Verdict
SIPRI's constant-dollar estimate places China's real 2025 military spending at $335.0bn, or 1.72% of GDP — the world's second-largest national total, equal to 12.227% of world military spending. This number is SIPRI's own methodology-driven estimate, not a restatement of China's official budget, so direct comparisons to Beijing's published figures or NATO-definition totals require matching methodologies first.
At a glance
| 2025 real military spending | $335.0bnSIPRI constant 2024 USD |
|---|---|
| Share of GDP | 1.72% |
| Global rank | 2 |
| Share of world spending | 12.227% |
| Year-on-year growth | 7.4% |
| 5-year / 10-year CAGR | 5.54% / 5.5% |
SIPRI's constant-dollar estimate puts China's real military spending at $335.0bn in 2025, equal to 1.72% of GDP — a figure built from country-level line items rather than Beijing's own published defense budget, which is widely read as narrower in scope.
01 What SIPRI says China really spends in 2025
The $335.0bn figure is SIPRI's constant 2024 US dollar estimate of China's military expenditure for 2025, equivalent to 1.72% of the country's GDP. It is the second-largest national total in SIPRI's dataset for the year, behind only the United States. Because it is denominated in constant dollars, the figure strips out currency and inflation effects, which is why it is commonly cited as the "real" spending number rather than a raw currency conversion of China's official budget line.
02 Why China's official budget and SIPRI's estimate diverge
China's officially announced defense budget and SIPRI's $335.0bn estimate are not the same measurement. SIPRI builds its constant-dollar total from country-level data and applies a consistent methodology across all states so that spending is comparable year to year and country to country — the same approach used to calculate the $335.0bn figure above. National-budget and NATO-definition totals differ from this figure because they use different scope rules, which is one reason outside estimates of China's spending vary depending on the source.
The $335.0bn figure is SIPRI's constant-dollar estimate, not SIPRI's restatement of China's official budget. National-budget totals and NATO-definition estimates use different scope rules and will not match this number directly.
03 How the $335.0bn figure has grown
China's real military spending rose 7.4% year-on-year into 2025, a faster pace than its longer-run trend. Over five years, the estimate has grown at a 5.54% compound annual rate, and over ten years at a nearly identical 5.5% compound annual rate — indicating the recent 7.4% jump sits above, rather than in line with, the country's decade-long trajectory.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Year-on-year growth (to 2025) | 7.4% |
| 5-year compound annual growth rate | 5.54% |
| 10-year compound annual growth rate | 5.5% |
| 2025 spending as share of GDP | 1.72% |
04 China's real spending in global context
At $335.0bn, China ranks 2nd among all countries in SIPRI's 2025 dataset, representing 12.227% of world military spending.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2025 spending (constant 2024 USD) | $335.0bn |
| Global rank | 2 |
| Share of world military spending | 12.227% |
05 What this means for reading China's defense budget going forward
The gap between China's official budget announcements and SIPRI's $335.0bn constant-dollar estimate is a persistent feature of how China's military spending is tracked, not a one-year anomaly — the 5.54% five-year and 5.5% ten-year compound growth rates show the estimate climbing at a fairly steady pace even as the headline budget figure moves separately. For readers comparing sources, the practical takeaway is to check which definition a given number uses — SIPRI's constant-dollar methodology, a NATO-definition estimate, or China's own budget line — before treating any single figure as "the" number for Chinese military spending. SIPRI's $335.0bn, at 1.72% of GDP and 12.227% of world military spending, is this page's reference figure precisely because its methodology is disclosed and applied consistently across countries. For the underlying budget figures themselves, see the full China defense budget breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is China's real military spending in 2025?
- SIPRI's constant 2024 US dollar estimate puts China's real military spending at $335.0bn in 2025, equal to 1.72% of GDP.
- Why doesn't China's real spending match its official defense budget?
- SIPRI's $335.0bn figure uses a consistent, disclosed methodology applied across countries, while China's official budget and NATO-definition totals use different scope rules, which is why the numbers don't line up directly.
- How fast is China's real military spending growing?
- It grew 7.4% year-on-year into 2025, faster than its 5.54% five-year and 5.5% ten-year compound annual growth rates.
- How does China's spending compare globally?
- China ranks 2nd in the world at $335.0bn, equal to 12.227% of world military spending.
defensebudget.org
Defense spending data, sourced from SIPRI
defensebudget.org tracks military expenditure for 160 countries using the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database. Pages are generated from that dataset and reviewed before publication.