Countries Increasing Military Spending Most, 2025

China posted the largest year-on-year increase in military spending of any country in 2025, up $23.1bn — a 7.4% rise on its 2024 outlay, according to SIPRI-based calculations. No other country's increase in the dataset approaches that dollar figure.

01 Which country increased spending the most?

On a straight year-on-year comparison, China is the data-determined leader: its military expenditure rose $23.1bn between 2024 and 2025, a 7.4% increase on its own 2024 spending level. That $23.1bn is the largest single-country dollar increase recorded in this comparison window — it is the answer to "who is spending more," not a judgment about intent, threat, or strategic posture.

This finding isolates one specific comparison — the single largest dollar shift in military spending between 2024 and 2025 — from other measures in the dataset, such as absolute spending totals or spending as a share of GDP. It answers one question only: which country's military budget grew by the most money in a single year. The sections below unpack how that figure is calculated, what it means in percentage terms, and how it sits alongside the broader 2025 spending order.

02 How the year-on-year change is calculated

The figure compares each country's SIPRI constant 2024 US-dollar military expenditure in 2025 against its 2024 level, isolating the single-year change rather than a multi-year trend. Using constant 2024 dollars strips out currency and inflation effects, so the $23.1bn figure reflects a real increase in resources, not a nominal one inflated by price changes.

Because this is a single-year comparison, it should not be read as a five- or ten-year growth rate. A country can post a large one-year jump while its longer-run trajectory looks quite different, and vice versa.

03 China's $23.1bn increase in context

China's 7.4% rise is a measure of its own growth relative to its 2024 base — the percentage describes how much larger China's 2025 budget is than its 2024 budget, not a share of a global total. On the dollar measure, the $23.1bn increase is the largest absolute year-on-year addition recorded in the dataset for 2025, meaning no other country added more military spending in a single year over this comparison window.

• Dollar leader — China's $23.1bn addition is the largest of any country between 2024 and 2025.
• Growth rate — the 7.4% increase is measured against China's own 2024 spending, not against any other country's base.
• Comparison window — the figure covers one year only, 2024 to 2025, and is not a multi-year average.

04 How this fits the broader 2025 spending picture

A single year-on-year increase is easiest to interpret alongside the full 2025 spending order — where a country's absolute budget ranks changes how much a given dollar increase matters in relative terms. Readers who want China's 2025 total placed against every other country's spending level can consult the 2025 world rankings, which lists absolute spending by country for the same year this increase covers.

05 Methodology and data notes

All figures are expressed in SIPRI constant 2024 US dollars, which hold prices fixed at 2024 levels so that year-on-year comparisons reflect real changes in spending rather than inflation or exchange-rate movement. The $23.1bn and 7.4% figures for China are calculated directly from the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database's country-level data for 2024 and 2025; where any figure in this analysis is a sum or aggregate across countries, it is our calculation from SIPRI country-level data, not a total SIPRI itself publishes. Data as of April 2026, per SIPRI's most recent update.