Which Country Spends the Highest % of GDP on Military? (2025)

Ukraine spent the highest share of gross domestic product on its military of any country in the world in 2025, committing 39.56% of its own GDP — roughly $77.6bn — to defense, according to SIPRI country-level data. No other country came close: second-place Algeria spent 8.83% of its GDP ($24.1bn) on its military, less than a quarter of Ukraine's burden.

01 Which country spends the highest % of GDP on military in 2025?

The answer is Ukraine, at 39.56% of its own GDP in 2025 — a figure equivalent to roughly $77.6bn in military spending, measured in SIPRI's constant 2024 US dollars. That single number sits far outside the range of every other country in this top 12: the next-highest burden, Algeria's 8.83% of GDP, is less than a quarter of Ukraine's ratio. Ukraine's wartime economy, discussed below, is the reason its ratio is an outlier rather than a typical "highest spender."

02 The top 12 countries by military burden (% of GDP)

The table below ranks the 12 highest military burdens in the world for 2025 — military spending as a percentage of each country's own GDP, alongside the dollar figure that percentage represents.

03 Why this ranking looks nothing like the absolute-dollar ranking

Readers searching for the highest military spender often expect to see the United States or China, since those countries dominate rankings of absolute defense budgets. Neither appears in this top 12. Measuring spending as a percentage of GDP asks a different question — not "who spends the most money" but "who commits the largest share of their own economy" — and small or war-affected economies can post very high ratios even with modest dollar totals. Azerbaijan's $4.7bn, for example, is a fraction of Russia's $158.2bn, yet its 6.47% burden sits close to Russia's 7.50%.

04 Ukraine's 39.56%: a wartime outlier explained

Ukraine's 39.56% of GDP figure reflects a country whose economy has been reshaped by full-scale war. Committing $77.6bn to defense against a smaller, war-contracted GDP produces a burden more than four times that of the next-highest country, Algeria. This is not a case of comparable defense policy choices; it is a wartime economy where military spending has become one of the dominant claims on national output, and the ratio should be read as a measure of wartime economic strain rather than a signal of relative military strength or ambition.

05 The next tier: Algeria, Israel, Russia and the Gulf/Caucasus states

• Algeria — 8.83% of GDP ($24.1bn) — the second-highest burden worldwide, and the highest among countries not currently engaged in full-scale war on their own territory.
• Israel — 7.81% of GDP ($43.7bn) — third overall, reflecting sustained defense outlays relative to a comparatively small economy.
• Russia — 7.50% of GDP ($158.2bn) — fourth by burden despite having the largest dollar total in this top 12, since Russia's GDP is far larger than Ukraine's or Algeria's.
• Saudi Arabia — 6.48% of GDP ($81.5bn) — the highest-burden Gulf state, with the second-largest dollar figure in the table after Russia.
• Azerbaijan and Armenia — 6.47% and 6.09% of GDP respectively — two Caucasus neighbors whose burdens sit within half a point of each other, at $4.7bn and $1.6bn.
• Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Poland and Mali — 5.68% down to 3.87% of GDP — rounding out the top 12, ranging from $0.9bn (Mali) to $42.5bn (Poland).

06 Methodology and data source

Rankings are based on SIPRI country-level military expenditure data for 2025, expressed in constant 2024 US dollars, with each country's burden calculated as military spending divided by its own GDP. Our calculation from SIPRI country-level data. Not SIPRI's own published total. Source: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database.