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SUMMARY: SIPRI Report on World Military Expenditure

The top ten countries spent $1.6 billion on their militaries in 2021.

April 26, 2022

Author

Statecraft Staff
SUMMARY: SIPRI Report on World Military Expenditure 
The Americas (42%), Asia and Oceania (28%), and Europe (20%) cumulatively accounted for 90% of global defence expenditure in 2021.
IMAGE SOURCE: JAGRAN JOSH

According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published on Saturday, global military expenditure surged by 0.7% in 2021 to a whopping $2113 billion. 

62% of this was attributed to just five countries—the United States (US), China, India, the United Kingdom (UK), and Russia. They were followed by France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea. In fact, the top ten countries on the list cumulatively spent $1.6 billion last year.

Among the notable changes in the ranking was the rise of the UK ($68.4 billion) and France ($56.6 billion), which became the fourth and sixth-largest spenders after coming up by two ranks. In contrast, Saudi Arabia ($55.6 billion) oversaw a 17% decline in its military spending, slipping from the fourth-largest spender in 2020 to the eighth-largest in 2021. Iran ($24.6 billion), meanwhile, featured in SIPRI’s top 15 defence spenders for the first time in 20 years after increasing its expenditure by 11%.

Once again, the US cemented its position as the largest spender on defence, accounting for 38% of the world share, with $801 billion in spending. The report said that while there was a nominal increase of 2.9%, real expenditure in fact dropped by 1.4% when accounting for inflation.

The US’ funding for research and development has surged by 24% since 2012, compared to its funding for arms procurement, which has dropped by 6.4% over the same period. Keeping this in mind, SIPRI concluded that the US is “currently prioritising the development of new technologies over large-scale spending on legacy systems.”

In second place, China allotted $293 billion to defence in 2021, a 72% increase from 2012. In fact, 2021 marked the 27th consecutive year in which Beijing has increased military spending, which SIPRI said is the “longest uninterrupted sequence of increases by any country” in its Military Expenditure Database.

Next, India was placed third after a 0.9% rise in spending to $76.6 billion. The report attributed this steady rise to enduring border tensions with Beijing and Islamabad, which have pushed New Delhi to modernise its armed forces and boost self-reliance in defence equipment. To this end, 64% of India’s capital outlays were set aside for acquiring indigenous arms and ammunition. Furthermore, an earlier SIPRI report published in March said that Myanmar is India’s largest partner in defence exports, with 50% being sent to Naypyidaw between 2017 and 2021.

Russia came fifth with $65.9 billion as it was gearing up for its invasion of Ukraine. Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, the director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said, “High oil and gas revenues helped Russia to boost its military spending in 2021. Russian military expenditure had been in decline between 2016 and 2019 as a result of low energy prices combined with sanctions in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.”

Meanwhile, amid heightened tensions with Russia, Ukraine’s military spending rose by 72% since Crimea’s annexation in 2014. While its expenditure dropped in 2021, Ukraine still spent over 3.2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence.

The report also looked into regional trends of military spending. It concluded that the Americas (42%), Asia and Oceania (28%), and Europe (20%) collectively accounted for 90% of global defence expenditure in 2021. Meanwhile, the Middle East and Africa accounted for a meagre 8.8% and 1.9%, respectively. Nevertheless, the military burden, which is measured by comparing a country’s military expenditure with its GDP, was the highest in the Middle East, where 4.3% of regional GDP was set aside for defence purposes.

Previous SIPRI Reports:

SIPRI also concluded that just eight of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 30 members had met the alliance’s target of allocating over 2% of their GDP to their military. This was a slight drop from 2020, wherein nine countries had managed to achieve the alliance’s target.

The release said that 2021 was the sixth consecutive year that global military and defence expenditure had increased. According to Dr Diego Lopes Da Silva, a senior researcher in SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, while the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation resulted in a “slowdown in the rate of real-terms growth,” there was an overall 6.1% increase in spending.

Author

Statecraft Staff

Editorial Team

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