Global military spending reaches record levels, report says

Global military spending rose again in 2021, setting new records as Russia continued to beef up its military prior to its invasion of Ukraine, researchers said Monday, predicting the trend would continue in Europe in particular.

Despite the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world increased their arsenals, with global military spending rising by 0.7% last year, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

“Now we have even tougher sanctions, that’s for sure, but we have higher energy prices which can help Russia afford to maintain military spending at that level,” Lopes da Silva said.

While spending declined by over 8% in 2021 to $5.9 billion, it still accounted for 3.2% of Ukraine’s GDP. As tensions have increased in Europe, more NATO countries have stepped up spending.

The U.S., which far outspent any other nation with $801 billion, actually went against the global trend and decreased its spending by 1.4% in 2021.’Technological edge’.

China, the world’s second-largest military spender at an estimated $293 billion, boosted its expenditure by 4.7%, marking the 27th straight year of increased spending.

India, the world’s third largest spender at $76.6 billion, also increased funding in 2021, but by a more modest 0.9%. The U.K. took over the No. 4 spot, with a 3% increase in military spending to $68.4 billion, replacing Saudi Arabia which instead decreased spending by 17% to an estimated $55.6 billion.