Global military expenditures in 2022 rose 3.7% to a record $2.24 trillion, driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and related spending by Moscow and Kyiv, a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows.
Ukraine’s military spending surged 640% to $44 billion, an unprecedented single-year increase since SIPRI began tracking data on such expenditures.
Total military spending in Central and Western Europe reached $345 billion, which in real terms surpassed spending by those countries in 1989 during the twilight of the Cold War and was 30% greater than a decade ago.
States sharing a border with Russia, which fear they may be next if Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine is not contained, hiked spending significantly. These included Finland (+36%), Lithuania (+27%), Sweden (+12%) and Poland (+11%).
While Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine underscored that the Russian threat is manifest, its neighbors have been shoring up their defenses for nearly a decade. “Many former Eastern bloc states have more than doubled their military spending since 2014, the year when Russia annexed Crimea,” said Lorenzo Scarazzato, a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, in a press release.
For its part, the U.S. remained the world’s top military spender. Its $877 billion budget accounted for 39% of the global total and was nearly three times as great as the $292 billion spent by China, which has the world’s second-largest military budget.
While the U.S. military budget has increased 27% since 2013, China’s has surged 63%. It is also widely believed that the official figures China releases significantly undercount its actual expenditures. Its official military expenditures for 2023 is roughly $225 billion, well below SIPRI’s estimate.
Overall, military spending in Asia and Oceania climbed to $575 billion in 2022, up 2.7% year-on-year and 45% since 2013.
In response to a more-insecure periphery that includes China, North Korea and Russia, Japan hiked military spending 5.9% last year to $46 billion. This was its highest level since 1960 and reached 1% of GDP.
“Japan is undergoing a profound shift in its military policy,” Xiao Liang, a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, said in a press release. “The post-war restraints Japan imposed on its military spending and military capabilities seem to be loosening.”
Asia is home to several other countries with large military budgets that upped spending last year. No. 4 India spent $81.4 billion, up 6% over 2021, while No. 5 Saudi Arabia increased its budget 16% to $75 billion.
