US Military Spending vs Other Countries, 2025

The United States spent $929.2bn on its military in 2025, the largest defense budget of any country and 33.9% of world military spending — more than China, Russia, and Germany's budgets combined.

01 How much does the United States spend on its military in 2025?

In 2025 the United States defense budget reached $929.2bn, ranking 1st of the 149 countries SIPRI tracks. No other country comes close: the gap between the US and the second-largest spender, China, is $594.2bn.

02 United States vs. China, Russia, and Germany: the top-four comparison

China is the second-largest military spender at $335.0bn, or 12.2% of the world total. Russia follows at $158.2bn (5.8%), and Germany, the fourth-largest spender globally, at $106.7bn (3.9%). Together these three countries spent $599.9bn in 2025, combining for 21.9% of world spending, which is still $329.3bn less than the US figure alone.

The US-to-China ratio is roughly 2.8 to 1: for every dollar China spent on its military in 2025, the US spent about $2.77. Against Russia the ratio widens further, to nearly 5.9 to 1, and against Germany to about 8.7 to 1.

03 What a 33.9% share of world spending means

The US figure of $929.2bn represents 33.9% of world military spending in 2025 — the largest share held by any single country. One country accounting for a third of global military spending means the US alone outspends the rest of the world's top three combined, and its 33.9% share exceeds the combined 21.9% share held by China, Russia, and Germany together.

04 Why US spending outpaces the next-largest countries combined

The scale gap is driven by rank concentration at the very top of the distribution rather than a broad spread across many mid-sized budgets. With 149 countries in the dataset, the US holding a full third of world spending on its own means the remaining 148 countries split the other 66.1% among them. China and Russia, the second- and third-ranked spenders, together account for just 18.0% of the world total ($493.2bn combined) — still short of matching the US figure alone.

• Rank 1 — United States, $929.2bn, 33.9% of world spending.
• Rank 2 — China, $335.0bn, 12.2% of world spending.
• Rank 3 — Russia, $158.2bn, 5.8% of world spending.
• Rank 4 — Germany, $106.7bn, 3.9% of world spending.

05 How these figures are calculated from SIPRI data

All figures on this page are drawn from SIPRI's country-level military expenditure data for 2025, expressed in constant 2024 US dollars, which strips out the effect of inflation and currency movement so that budgets across years and countries are comparable. Rank and share figures are our calculation from SIPRI country-level data — not SIPRI's own published total — computed by summing every country's reported spending and dividing each country's figure by that sum. For the full ranked list of all 149 countries, see the 2025 world rankings.