Military Spending in Africa 2025: $55.1bn Total
Africa's 47 tracked countries spent a combined $55.1bn on their militaries in 2025, equal to 2% of world military spending.
Key takeaways
- Africa's 47 tracked countries spent a combined $55.1bn on their militaries in 2025, equal to 2% of world military spending.
- Algeria is the region's largest spender at $24.1bn, or 43.8% of Africa's $55.1bn total.
- Morocco ($5.9bn, 10.7%) and South Africa ($3.0bn, 5.4%) rank second and third.
- The $55.1bn figure is a calculated sum of 47 countries' SIPRI data, not an official SIPRI regional total.
- Countries without a 2025 SIPRI figure are excluded from both the total and the 47-country count.
Verdict
Africa's 47 tracked countries spent $55.1bn on their militaries in 2025, or 2% of world spending, with Algeria alone accounting for $24.1bn (43.8%) of the regional total. This is our calculation from SIPRI country-level data — not SIPRI's own published total — and excludes any African country without a reported 2025 figure.
At a glance
| Africa total, 2025 | $55.1bnSum of 47 countries |
|---|---|
| Share of world spending | 2%Of total world military spending |
| Top spender | Algeria — $24.1bn43.8% of the regional total |
| Countries covered | 47Africa countries SIPRI reports for 2025 |
| Second-largest spender | Morocco — $5.9bn10.7% of the regional total |
Africa's 47 tracked countries spent a combined $55.1bn on their militaries in 2025, equal to 2% of world military spending. Algeria was the region's largest spender at $24.1bn.
Who this is for: Analysts and journalists tracking African defense budgets and regional military-spending trends.
01 How Much Does Africa Spend on Its Military in 2025?
SIPRI-reported military spending across Africa's 47 countries totalled $55.1bn in 2025. That figure is a bottom-up sum of every African country SIPRI reports a 2025 figure for — not a single official regional total published by SIPRI itself.
Sum of the 47 Africa countries SIPRI reports for 2025. Countries without a 2025 figure are excluded.
02 Algeria Leads Africa in Military Spending
Algeria is the data-determined leader in African military spending for 2025, at $24.1bn. That is 43.8% of the region's $55.1bn total — meaning close to half of everything Africa's 47 tracked countries spent on their militaries came from a single country. Morocco follows at a considerable distance, with $5.9bn, or 10.7% of the regional total.
03 Top 8 African Countries by Military Spending
| Rank | Country | 2025 Spending | Share of Africa Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Algeria | $24.1bn | 43.8% |
| 2 | Morocco | $5.9bn | 10.7% |
| 3 | South Africa | $3.0bn | 5.4% |
| 4 | Egypt | $2.3bn | 4.1% |
| 5 | Nigeria | $1.8bn | 3.2% |
| 6 | Kenya | $1.4bn | 2.5% |
| 7 | Tunisia | $1.4bn | 2.5% |
| 8 | Angola | $1.3bn | 2.3% |
- Algeria — $24.1bn, 43.8% of Africa's $55.1bn total, the region's largest single spender.
- Morocco — $5.9bn, 10.7% of the regional total, the second-largest spender.
- South Africa — $3.0bn, 5.4% of the regional total, the largest spender outside North Africa.
04 Africa's Share of World Military Spending
Africa's $55.1bn represents 2% of total world military spending in 2025. That places the continent's 47 tracked countries well behind the world's largest spending regions on an aggregate basis, even though individual countries such as Algeria rank among the world's larger military budgets. Readers looking for the full global context can consult the 2025 world rankings.
05 How the Africa Total Is Calculated
The $55.1bn figure is our calculation from SIPRI country-level data, produced by summing every 2025 figure SIPRI reports for the 47 African countries in its dataset. It is not a total that SIPRI itself publishes as a single regional line item.
All figures are expressed in SIPRI constant 2024 US dollars, which strips out inflation and exchange-rate effects so figures are comparable across countries and years.
Because the total only includes countries with a reported 2025 figure, any African country SIPRI does not cover for 2025 is absent from both the $55.1bn total and the 47-country count — the total is a floor on actual regional spending, not a ceiling.
06 Where Africa Ranks Globally
At $55.1bn and 2% of world spending, Africa sits at the smaller end of the world's regional military budgets, a gap driven largely by the concentration of African spending in a handful of North and Southern African states. Algeria's $24.1bn, Morocco's $5.9bn and South Africa's $3.0bn are the region's three largest individual military budgets.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much did Africa spend on its military in 2025?
- Africa's 47 tracked countries spent a combined $55.1bn on their militaries in 2025, based on our calculation from SIPRI country-level data.
- Which African country spends the most on its military?
- Algeria spends the most, at $24.1bn in 2025 — 43.8% of Africa's $55.1bn total.
- What share of world military spending does Africa account for?
- Africa accounted for 2% of world military spending in 2025.
- Is the $55.1bn figure an official SIPRI total?
- No. It is our calculation from SIPRI country-level data, summing the 47 African countries SIPRI reports a 2025 figure for. Countries without a 2025 figure are excluded.
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.