According to a recently published report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India, was the fourth largest defence spender in the world in 2022 after the United States, China and Russia.
India’s military spending of $81.4 billion was the fourth highest in the world. It was 6.0% more than in 2021.
Further, to be noted, the total global military expenditure increased by 3.7% in real terms in 2022, to reach a new high of $2240 billion.
The three largest spenders in 2022 were the United States, China and Russia, accounting for 56% of the world total military expenditure.
The United States remains by far the world’s biggest military spender. US military spending reached $877 billion in 2022, which was 39% of total global military spending and three times more than the amount spent by China.
On the other hand, China remained the world’s second largest military spender, allocating an estimated $292 billion in 2022. This was 4.2% more than in 2021 and 63% more than in 2013. China’s military expenditure has increased for 28 consecutive years.
On the third spot is Russia with its military spending witnesses a growth by an estimated 9.2% in 2022, to around $86.4 billion.
And, on the fourth spot was India with $81.4 Billion military spending. The country’s spending was up by 6% from 2021 and by 47% from 2013.
Saudi Arabia was the fifth biggest military spender, rose by 16% to reach an estimated $75.0 billion, its first increase since 2018.
Besides these top five countries, the other largest military spenders includes of UK ($68.5 billion), Germany ($55.8 billion), France ($53.6 billion), South Korea ($46.4 billion) and Japan ($46 billion).
While the figures for China and Russia are estimates due to lack of transparency, Ukraine is placed at 11th rank with $44 billion and Pakistan at 24th spot with $10.3 billion.
Further, Military expenditure in Europe saw its steepest year-on-year increase (+13%) in at least 30 years.
Some of the sharpest increases were seen in Finland (+36%), Lithuania (+27%), Sweden (+12%) and Poland (+11%).
Source: https://sipri.org/
