Military spending is most important to national defense, sovereignty and security of country’s economic benefits. Significance of such expenditure can’t be ignored, even in financial and economic crisis, military spending or defense expenditure always remains high. Each country’s spending depends on its own need and ability that is defined by real or perceived threats, availability of economic resources and foreign policies. It is obverse that natural resources is the factor most involved in increased military spending and arms imports in the developing world. Geopolitics and strategic interests are still factors to project or maintain power in pursuit of global and regional influence. Regional disputes have also caused countries to increase the size of their military. Significant defense budget in the whole terrorist resort neighboring countries to spend most on defense. Countries with highest GDP growth are able to spend highest on military but it retard economic growth and also delete resources while on the other hand, some countries rely on affiliations and regional alliances to maintain a capable fighting force and divert their economic resources to public projects.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) measures military exports, imports and expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product for most of the world’s armed countries. The Defense Spending Budget means resources deployed to maintain and strengthen military.
Below are the countries that spend the most on the military in term of % of GDP.
| Rank | Country | % of GDP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2012 | ||
| 1 | Oman | 11.3 | 15.8 | 9.5 | 8.3 |
| 2 | Saudi Arabia | 9.3 | 7.9 | 7.2 | 8.6 |
| 3 | Afghanistan | 6.3 | 3.6 | 4.8 | 3.7 |
| 4 | Israel | 5.6 | 5.8 | 6 | 6.4 |
| 5 | Algeria | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 3.5 |
| 6 | Angola | 4.8 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 4.2 |
| 7 | Azerbaijan | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 2.8 |
| 8 | Myanmar | 4.5 | 4.6 | 2.6 | . . |
| 9 | Lebanon | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 4.2 |
| 10 | Russia/USSR | 4.1 | 3.9 | 3.7 | 3.8 |
| 11 | Mauritania | 4 | . . | . . | . . |
| 12 | Armenia | 4 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 4.3 |
| 13 | Bahrain | 3.9 | 3.1 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | Morocco | 3.8 | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.5 |
| 15 | USA | 3.8 | 4.4 | 4.7 | 4.8 |
| 16 | Iraq | 3.6 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 2.6 |
| 17 | Jordan | 3.5 | 4 | 4.8 | 5 |
| 18 | Zimbabwe | 3.4 | 3.2 | 2.2 | 1.3 |
| 19 | Colombia | 3.4 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| 20 | Singapore | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.5 |
| 21 | Namibia | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.6 |
| 22 | Kyrgyzstan | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.8 |
| 23 | Kuwait | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.6 |
| 24 | Pakistan | 3 | 3 | 2.9 | 2.8 |
| 25 | Ukraine | 3 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 2.7 |
| 26 | Swaziland | 2.9 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 3 |
| 27 | Yemen | 2.9 | 3.4 | 3 | . . |
| 28 | Korea, South | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.7 |
| 29 | Sri Lanka | 2.8 | 2.6 | 3 | 3.1 |
| 30 | Georgia | 2.8 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
The 30 countries which spent the most US dollar on military. The United States is by far the largest military spender, according to SIPRI.
| Rank | Country | Military Expenditure in US$ (millions) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | ||
| 1 | USA | 640221 | 684780 | 711338 |
| 2 | China, P. R. | 188460 | 167712 | 147268 |
| 3 | Russia/USSR | 87837 | 81079 | 70238 |
| 4 | Saudi Arabia | 66996 | 56498 | 48531 |
| 5 | France | 61228 | 60058 | 64633 |
| 6 | UK | 57891 | 58500 | 60284 |
| 7 | Germany | 48790 | 46488 | 48164 |
| 8 | Japan | 48604 | 59564 | 60452 |
| 9 | India | 47398 | 47214 | 49634 |
| 10 | Korea, South | 33937 | 31660 | 30884 |
| 11 | Italy | 32657 | 33746 | 38149 |
| 12 | Brazil | 31456 | 33988 | 36932 |
| 13 | Australia | 23963 | 26158 | 26610 |
| 14 | Turkey | 19085 | 18109 | 17181 |
| 15 | Canada | 18460 | 20379 | 20474 |
| 16 | Israel | 16032 | 15066 | 15510 |
| 17 | Colombia | 13003 | 11706 | 10307 |
| 18 | Spain | 12765 | 13918 | 13990 |
| 19 | Taiwan | 10530 | 10715 | 9998 |
| 20 | Algeria | 10402 | 9326 | 8652 |
| 21 | Netherlands | 10328 | 10596 | 11654 |
| 22 | Singapore | 9759 | 9353 | 8921 |
| 23 | Poland | 9257 | 8986 | 9455 |
| 24 | Oman | 9246 | 12334 | 6668 |
| 25 | Iraq | 7896 | 6054 | 5905 |
| 26 | Indonesia | 7840 | 7770 | 5838 |
| 27 | Mexico | 7838 | 6979 | 6472 |
| 28 | Pakistan | 7641 | 7479 | 6955 |
| 29 | Norway | 7235 | 7143 | 7232 |
| 30 | Sweden | 6519 | 6239 | 6324 |
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
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