What the data shows
World military spending rose for an 11th consecutive year to a SIPRI-estimated $2,887 billion in 2025 (up from $2,718 billion in 2024, itself the steepest rise since at least 1988). Warconomy reconstructs SIPRI's own 2015-2023 series to show the decade-long climb, and a continued-growth scenario brackets 2026-2027. Figures are current USD and revised in later SIPRI releases.
Covered through December 31, 2025 · reviewed July 22, 2026.
Series
Each class is drawn with a distinct line style and marker shape (not colour alone). Vertical whiskers show uncertainty ranges. Modeled values (reconstructed / nowcast / forecast / scenario) are estimates, never reported history — see the epistemic model.
All values
| Period | Value (USD billion (current)) | Class | Evidence | Range meaning | Source / method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,670 USD billion (current) | Reco | Corroborated | point | SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024 method |
| 2020 | 2,010 USD billion (current) | Reco | Corroborated | point | SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024 method |
| 2022 | 2,240 USD billion (current) | Reco | Corroborated | point | SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024 method |
| 2023 | 2,440 USD billion (current) | Reco | Corroborated | point | SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024 method |
| 2024 | 2,718 USD billion (current) | Obse | Verified | point | SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024 |
| 2025 | 2,887 USD billion (current) | Obse | Verified | point | SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2025 |
| 2026-27 (scenario) | 2,950–3,250 USD billion (current) | Scen | Unverified | plausible range | SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2025 method |
Per-point notes
- 2015: SIPRI world total (current USD), transcribed from SIPRI's historical series.
- 2020: SIPRI world total (current USD).
- 2022: SIPRI world total (current USD).
- 2023: SIPRI world total (current USD).
- 2024: SIPRI 2024 world total (+9.4%), steepest rise since at least 1988.
- 2025: SIPRI 2025 world total (+2.9% real); 11th consecutive year of growth.
- 2026-27 (scenario): Conditional continued-growth path.
Source & definition notes
Definition change (January 1, 2024): Observed points 2024-2025 are directly-cited SIPRI fact-sheet figures. Both are SIPRI current-USD world totals on the same definition; the break is only in Warconomy's provenance (reconstruction vs. direct citation), not in what is measured.
Sources
- SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024 — Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
- SIPRI — Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2025 — Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Cite this page
Warconomy, “World military expenditure”, reviewed as of July 22, 2026. https://warconomy.com/data-series/world-military-expenditure.
Machine-readable: the JSON dataset and source registry. More citation formats on the citation catalog. Values are source-linked and manually maintained; not real-time.
Related
All data series · this series as JSON · epistemic model · forecasts