Top Countries to spend the largest share of GDP towards defence

A nation’s military is a crucial asset. The military enforces domestic and foreign policies and protects its citizens. National security is regarded as a government duty, including the security of citizens, the economy, and the country’s institutions.  China, India, and the United States, unsurprisingly, have the largest military sizes. A majority of the world’s nations have militaries, and only 36 nations do not have a military.

1.  The United States has the highest military spending of any nation. In 2020, the U.S. spent $778 billion on military spending, The United States military expenditure amounted to 3.4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. Its military spending includes all of the Department of Defense’s regular activities, war spending, nuclear weapons, international military assistance, and other Pentagon-related spending.

2. China’s defense spending this year is set to grow at its fastest pace since 2019, according to the Ministry of Finance plan released Saturday. The Chinese government has proposed the defense budget for the fiscal year 2022 at 1.45 trillion yuan (USD 230 billion), a 7.1 percent of its GDP year on year increase, according to the draft budget proposals presented by Premier Li Keqiang to the National People’s Congress, the country’s parliament on Saturday.

3. In recent years, Russia has embarked on a military modernization program funded by rapidly increasing military spending and has pursued a more assertive foreign policy. Russian military expenditure has grown significantly over the past two decades. Russia today spends about $62 billion about 4% of its GDP on Defense.

4. India announced its new defense budget Tuesday that will see $13.84 billion go toward promoting self-reliance among local businesses and reducing the country’s import dependency under its $22.26 billion fund for acquisitions of new weapons and military platforms. India’s total defense budget for the financial year 2022-2023 is $54.2 billion, which includes $20.26 billion to cover pay and allowances for more than 1.5 billion military personnel. This does not include the defense pensions of retired personnel.