Military Expenditure Meaning: World Total $2.74tn (2025)
Military expenditure is the money a state spends on its armed forces and defense, and in 2025 the world total was $2,740.0bn across 149 SIPRI-reporting countries.
Key takeaways
- Military expenditure means a country's spending on its armed forces, operations, procurement, R&D, and military infrastructure.
- World military expenditure was $2,740.0bn in 2025 across 149 countries. Our calculation from SIPRI country-level data. Not SIPRI's own published total.
- SIPRI figures are expressed in constant 2024 US dollars so spending is comparable across years and countries.
- The $2,740.0bn total is a floor: countries missing from the dataset, such as North Korea, are not included.
- Full country-by-country figures behind the $2,740.0bn total are available in the 2025 world rankings.
Verdict
Military expenditure means a state's spending on its armed forces, and the 2025 world total was $2,740.0bn across 149 countries. Our calculation from SIPRI country-level data. Not SIPRI's own published total. Because some spenders, including North Korea, are absent from the dataset, this figure is a floor on true global military expenditure rather than a complete count.
At a glance
| World military expenditure | $2,740.0bn2025 world total |
|---|---|
| Year | 2025Actual figure, not an estimate |
| Countries included | 149SIPRI-reporting countries summed |
| Currency basis | Constant 2024 US dollarsInflation- and exchange-rate-adjusted |
| Attribution | Our calculation from SIPRI country-level dataNot SIPRI's own published total |
Military expenditure means the money a state spends on its armed forces, military operations, and defense-related activities in a given year. In 2025, world military expenditure — summed across the 149 countries SIPRI reports — totaled $2,740.0bn. Our calculation from SIPRI country-level data. Not SIPRI's own published total.
01 What Does "Military Expenditure" Mean?
Military expenditure is the standard term for government spending on national defense: the armed forces, military research, procurement of weapons and equipment, and the administration and support structures that keep a military running. Data providers such as SIPRI (the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) track this spending on a comparable basis across countries and years, which is what makes it possible to say how large one country's military budget is relative to another's, or relative to the world as a whole.
The term is descriptive, not evaluative. A higher figure means a country allocates more resources to its military in dollar terms — it says nothing on its own about whether that spending makes a country stronger, safer, or more secure.
02 What Counts as Military Expenditure?
SIPRI's definition of military expenditure is broad, covering resources devoted to the effective operation of a country's armed forces, not just the primary defense ministry budget line. In practice, this includes:
- Personnel — salaries and pensions for military and civilian defense staff.
- Operations and maintenance — day-to-day running costs of forces and equipment.
- Procurement — purchases of weapons, vehicles, and military hardware.
- Military research and development — funding for defense-related R&D.
- Military construction and infrastructure — bases, facilities, and related capital spending.
It excludes most spending on police, border guards, and other domestic security forces unless those forces are trained and equipped for combat and deployable as military units.
03 How Much Is World Military Expenditure in 2025?
World military expenditure for 2025 was $2,740.0bn across the 149 countries SIPRI reports for that year. Our calculation from SIPRI country-level data. Not SIPRI's own published total. It is the sum of each country's reported spending in that dataset.
Every country's contribution to this $2,740.0bn total can be seen individually in the 2025 world rankings, which lists each of the 149 countries by spending level.
04 How Is Military Expenditure Measured and Compared Across Countries?
Figures like the $2,740.0bn 2025 total are expressed in constant 2024 US dollars, which strips out the effect of inflation and currency movements so that spending can be compared across years and across countries on a like-for-like basis. Without this adjustment, changes in a country's military budget could reflect currency depreciation or domestic inflation rather than an actual change in the resources devoted to its armed forces.
Figures for 2025 in this dataset are treated as actual reported spending, not projections. Only years 2026 and later are estimates and would be flagged as such.
05 Why the World Total Is a Floor, Not the Full Picture
The $2,740.0bn figure is a floor on true world military expenditure, not a ceiling or a complete count. It reflects only the 149 countries present in SIPRI's dataset for 2025.
Sum of the 149 countries SIPRI reports for 2025. Some spenders are absent from the dataset — North Korea has no series, and several other states have gaps — so $2,740.0bn understates true global military expenditure rather than fully capturing it.
For the country-by-country breakdown behind this total, see the 2025 world rankings, or return to the Glossary for other defense-spending terms.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does military expenditure mean?
- Military expenditure means the money a state spends on its armed forces and defense-related activities, including personnel, operations, procurement, R&D, and military infrastructure.
- What was world military expenditure in 2025?
- World military expenditure in 2025 was $2,740.0bn across the 149 countries SIPRI reports for that year. Our calculation from SIPRI country-level data. Not SIPRI's own published total.
- Is the $2,740.0bn total published by SIPRI?
- No. Our calculation from SIPRI country-level data. Not SIPRI's own published total. It excludes countries missing from the dataset, such as North Korea.
- Why are the figures in constant 2024 US dollars?
- Using constant 2024 US dollars removes the effects of inflation and currency fluctuation, allowing spending to be compared consistently across countries and years.
- What is the definition of military spending?
- Military spending, or military expenditure, is government spending on armed forces and related defense activities — including personnel, operations, procurement, R&D, and military construction. It excludes veterans' benefits and civil defense.
- Is the $2,740.0bn total the whole world's military spending?
- No. It covers only the 149 countries in the SIPRI dataset. North Korea has no series at all, and other states have reporting gaps, so actual global military spending in 2025 is higher than $2,740.0bn.
- Why are the figures in constant dollars rather than current dollars?
- Constant 2024 US dollars remove the effect of inflation and exchange-rate movement, so spending in different years — including the $2,740.0bn 2025 total — can be compared directly.
- Is the world military spending total published by SIPRI itself?
- No. The $2,740.0bn figure is defensebudget.org's own aggregation of SIPRI's country-level series, not a total SIPRI publishes directly.
- Why isn't the $2,740.0bn total the full global figure?
- It only sums the 149 countries in SIPRI's 2025 dataset. Some countries, such as North Korea, have no SIPRI series, and others have reporting gaps, so actual global spending is likely somewhat higher.
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.