NATO vs Russia Military Spending 2025: $1.52tn vs $158bn
NATO's 32 members spent a combined $1,520.9bn on defense in 2025, versus Russia's $158.2bn — a 9.6-to-1 ratio.
Key takeaways
- NATO's 32 members spent $1,520.9bn in 2025 versus Russia's $158.2bn — a 9.6-to-1 ratio.
- NATO's total equals 55.5% of the world total; Russia's $158.2bn equals 5.775% of the same world total.
- Russia ranks third in the world in 2025 and spends 7.5% of its GDP on its military.
- Russia's spending grew 5.9% year-on-year, with an 18.69% five-year CAGR versus a 7.73% ten-year CAGR.
- The NATO total is our calculation summing all 32 current members for 2025 — SIPRI does not publish this bloc-wide figure itself.
Verdict
NATO's 32 members spent $1,520.9bn in 2025 against Russia's $158.2bn, a 9.6-to-1 ratio, though Russia's 7.5%-of-GDP burden and 18.69% five-year CAGR show a steeper relative trajectory. The NATO figure is a sum of all 32 current members for 2025, calculated from SIPRI country data rather than published by SIPRI directly.
At a glance
| NATO total (2025) | $1,520.9bnSum of all 32 current members |
|---|---|
| Russia total (2025) | $158.2bnWorld rank 3 |
| Spending ratio | 9.6 to 1NATO vs Russia |
| Russia % of GDP | 7.5%2025 |
| Russia YoY change | +5.9%2025 vs 2024 |
| Russia 5-yr CAGR | 18.69%vs 7.73% 10-yr CAGR |
NATO's 32 members spent a combined $1,520.9bn on defense in 2025, versus Russia's $158.2bn — a spending ratio of 9.6 to 1, according to the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database.
01 NATO vs Russia: The 2025 Numbers
In 2025, the 32 members of NATO spent a combined $1,520.9bn on their militaries. Russia, by contrast, spent $158.2bn. That gap — roughly $1,362.7bn in absolute terms — puts NATO's aggregate spending at 55.5% of the world total, while Russia accounted for 5.775% of the same world total.
| Bloc / Country | 2025 Spending | Share of World Total | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| NATO (32 members) | $1,520.9bn | 55.5% | — |
| Russia | $158.2bn | 5.775% | 3 |
Sum of all 32 current NATO members for 2025.
Russia ranks third in the world by military expenditure. NATO's total is not a figure SIPRI itself publishes — it is the sum of SIPRI's country-level data for all current member states.
02 The 9.6-to-1 Ratio Explained
Dividing NATO's $1,520.9bn by Russia's $158.2bn produces a ratio of 9.6 to 1. That figure captures raw budget size across a 32-member alliance against a single country, so it says nothing about force structure, procurement efficiency, or domestic purchasing power — only the dollar totals SIPRI's country data support, converted to constant 2024 US dollars.
A bloc-to-country ratio compares 32 separate national budgets, summed, against one. It is a scale comparison, not a measure of relative military capability.
03 Russia's Spending Burden: 7.5% of GDP
Russia's $158.2bn represents 7.5% of its GDP in 2025 — a burden share far above what most NATO members carry individually, even though NATO's combined dollar total is far larger in absolute terms. A high GDP share indicates how much of a country's own economic output is being redirected to defense, independent of how that total stacks up against another bloc's aggregate spending.
- Absolute total — Russia's $158.2bn is smaller than NATO's $1,520.9bn by a factor of 9.6.
- Relative burden — at 7.5% of GDP, Russia's defense spending consumes a much larger slice of its own economy than the burden implied by NATO's aggregate spending against the bloc's much larger combined economy.
04 Five- and Ten-Year Growth Trends
Russia's military spending rose 5.9% year-on-year in 2025. Over a longer horizon, its five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 18.69%, versus a ten-year CAGR of 7.73% — meaning growth has accelerated sharply in the more recent five-year window compared with the decade-long trend.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Year-on-year change (2025) | +5.9% |
| 5-year CAGR | 18.69% |
| 10-year CAGR | 7.73% |
2025 marks a peak year for Russian spending in this dataset at $158.2bn, the highest figure on record in the series. None of these figures are estimates — 2025 is reported as an actual, not a projected, year.
05 What's Included in the NATO Total (and What Isn't)
The $1,520.9bn NATO figure sums all 32 current member states for 2025, with no members excluded from the calculation this year.
Sum of all 32 current NATO members for 2025.
Because SIPRI does not publish an official NATO-wide total, this figure is our calculation from SIPRI country-level data, not SIPRI's own published total. Readers comparing this page's numbers against SIPRI's raw tables should expect to reconstruct the same sum from individual member entries rather than find a matching bloc total in SIPRI's own reporting. For the full member-by-member breakdown behind this total, see NATO defense spending.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much more does NATO spend than Russia?
- NATO's 32 members spent $1,520.9bn in 2025 versus Russia's $158.2bn — a ratio of 9.6 to 1.
- What share of world military spending does NATO account for?
- NATO's $1,520.9bn represents 55.5% of the world total in 2025.
- What percentage of GDP does Russia spend on its military?
- Russia spent 7.5% of its GDP on its military in 2025, while its total outlay of $158.2bn ranked third in the world.
- Is SIPRI's NATO total an official published figure?
- No. It is our calculation from SIPRI's country-level data — a sum of all 32 current NATO members for 2025 — not a total SIPRI itself publishes.
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.