# Global Military Expenditure Tracker

> Interactive visualization of military spending by country — % of GDP and absolute USD, 1949-2027.

## URL
https://www.defensebudget.org

## Description
defensebudget.org provides an interactive world heatmap of military expenditure as a percentage of GDP for 165 countries, plus per-country time series, yearly rankings, head-to-head comparisons, and NATO 2% target tracking. Historical data (1949-2025) comes from SIPRI; 2026-2027 figures are estimates based on announced budgets and trend extrapolation, and are labelled as estimates everywhere they appear.

## Data
- Primary source: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database — https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex
- Historical coverage: 1949-2025 (SIPRI actuals)
- Estimates: 2026-2027 (from official budget announcements where available, otherwise trend extrapolation)
- Countries: 165 (149 with 2025 actuals)
- Absolute spending is reported in constant 2024 US dollars
- Dataset last refreshed: 2026-07-07

## Key facts (2025, latest SIPRI actuals)

### Highest military spending as % of GDP
1. Ukraine — 39.6%
2. Algeria — 8.8%
3. Israel — 7.8%
4. Russia — 7.5%
5. Saudi Arabia — 6.5%
6. Azerbaijan — 6.5%
7. Armenia — 6.1%
8. Oman — 5.7%
9. Kuwait — 4.7%
10. Jordan — 4.6%

### Highest absolute military spending (constant 2024 USD)
1. United States — $929 billion (3.1% of GDP)
2. China — $335 billion (1.7% of GDP)
3. Russia — $158 billion (7.5% of GDP)
4. Germany — $107 billion (2.3% of GDP)
5. India — $93 billion (2.3% of GDP)
6. United Kingdom — $88 billion (2.4% of GDP)
7. Saudi Arabia — $81 billion (6.5% of GDP)
8. Ukraine — $78 billion (39.6% of GDP)
9. France — $65 billion (2.0% of GDP)
10. Japan — $59 billion (1.4% of GDP)

### NATO 2% target
NATO members have committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on defense. In 2025, 22 of the 32 NATO members met the target. On 2026 estimates, 30 of 32 are projected to meet it.

## Site structure
All pages exist in 7 languages: English (en), Chinese (zh), Russian (ru), Arabic (ar), Spanish (es), French (fr), German (de). Replace `en` with any locale code.

- https://www.defensebudget.org/en — interactive world map, year slider (1949-2027), rankings table
- https://www.defensebudget.org/en/country/[slug] — per-country page with % GDP and absolute USD charts (165 countries, e.g. /en/country/united-states, /en/country/china, /en/country/ukraine)
- https://www.defensebudget.org/en/rankings/[year] — full country ranking for any year from 1949 to 2027
- https://www.defensebudget.org/en/compare/[a]-vs-[b] — head-to-head comparison pages for the top 10 spenders (e.g. /en/compare/united-states-vs-china)
- https://www.defensebudget.org/en/nato — NATO members vs the 2% of GDP target
- https://www.defensebudget.org/sitemap.xml — full list of URLs

## Features
- Interactive world heatmap with a year slider covering 1949-2027
- Country time series for both % of GDP and absolute spending
- Sortable ranking tables per year
- Two-country comparison pages
- NATO 2% target tracker
- 2026-2027 estimates clearly marked as estimates
- Dark military-themed interface

## Contact
Open data visualization project. Underlying data sourced from SIPRI.