Countries with the highest military spending worldwide in 2025 (in billion U.S. dollars)

The United States led the ranking of the countries with the highest military spending in 2025, with 954 billion U.S. dollars dedicated to the military. This amounted to 3.1  percent of the U.S.'s gross domestic product (GDP), placing the country lower in the ranking of military expenditure as a percentage of GDP, compared to Ukraine, Israel, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. China was the second largest military spender, with an estimated 336 billion U.S. dollars spent, with Russia following in third. 

Defense budget

According to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, the outlays for defense will rise to 1.1 trillion U.S. dollars by 2033. The largest parts of the budget are dedicated to the Departments of the Navy and the Air Force. The budget for the U.S. Air Force for 2024 was nearly 260 billion U.S. dollars.

Global military spending

The value of military spending globally has grown steadily in recent years and reached 2.9  trillion U.S. dollars in 2025. Reasons for this are the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, the war in Gaza, and increasing tensions in the South China Sea. North America is by far the leading region worldwide in terms of expenditure on the military.