Global military spending hit all-time high in 2023 after 7% jump, report finds

Global military spending reached a record high of $2.4 trillion in 2023 amid a "global deterioration in peace and security," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Monday.

The figure marked a 6.8% increase from 2022 and the sharpest year-on-year jump since 2009, the institute said in a report on military spending trends.

"The unprecedented rise in military spending is a direct response to the global deterioration in peace and security," Nan Tian, senior researcher in SIPRI's military expenditure and arms production programme, said in a statement.

Military expenditure has been rising for nine years straight, and it was up in all regions of the world for the first time since 2009, the report found. This was linked to the war in Ukraine, as well as to growing tensions in the Middle East and other developments, such as a pushback against organized crime and gang violence in Central America and the Caribbean.

Ukraine and Russia, which are actively at war, topped the list for the countries that increased their military spending the most in 2023, by 51% and 24%, respectively. Russia's actual military expenditure remained far above that of Ukraine at an estimated $109 billion, which makes it the third-biggest military spender internationally, behind the U.S. and China.

This figure is likely an underestimation, the report noted, as Russia's financials are highly opaque, and the budget allocated to military spending is supplemented by businesses, individuals and organizations.

Ukraine's military spending meanwhile totaled around $64.8 billion — around 59% the amount of Russia's spending, but 37% of Ukraine's GDP, the report said. The figure does not include the tens of billions of military aid that Kyiv receives,