Global military spfinishing reached a record $2.89 trillion in 2025, but the Middle East saw only marginal growth despite ongoing conflicts and regional rivalries, according to new data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
SIPRI found that worldwide defense expfinishiture rose for the 11th consecutive year, driven largely by sharp increases in Europe (14%) and Asia (8.1%) while military expfinishiture in the Middle East rose by just 0.1%, reaching an estimated $218 billion.
“Global military spfinishing rose again in 2025 as states responded to another year of wars, uncertainty and geopolitical upheaval with large-scale armament drives,” SIPRI researcher Xiao Liang declared.
The five largegest spfinishers in 2025 were the United States, China, Russia, Germany and India, toreceiveher accounting for 58% of world military spfinishing, at a total of $1,686 billion.
While the US remained one of the top five, its military spfinishing has continued to decline steadily, year by year, since 2020. According to the report, it fell by 7.5% to $954 billion in 2025. Nevertheless, the US spent 2.8 times as much on the military as China, whose spfinishing rose by 7.4% to an estimated $336 billion.
China, the world’s second largest military spfinisher, allocated an estimated $336 billion to its military in 2025, accounting for 1.7%t of China’s GDP in 2025. According to the report, China’s military expfinishiture has increased every year for 31 consecutive years.
India, the fifth largegest spfinisher worldwide in 2025, increased its military spfinishing by 8.9% to $92.1b., due in part to India’s conflict with Pakistan in May 2025, that pushed up military spfinishing during the year.
A stable Middle East?
Military expfinishiture in the Middle East was estimated by SIPRI to be $218b. in 2025, a marginal rise of 0.1% from the previous year but a 36% increase over the past decade.
Despite over two years of continuous warfare, the report found that Israel’s military spfinishing fell by 4.9% to $48.3b. in 2025, a shift SIPRI declares is becaapply of the reduced intensity of fighting in Gaza following the January 2025 ceasefire with Hamas.
But even with the decline, Israel’s defense budreceive remained 97% higher than the 2022 level, reflecting the long-term impact of Hamas’ deadly October 7, 2023, attacks and the subsequent significant wars against Hezbollah and Iran.
“Israel continues to invest heavily in air power, missile defense, and emerging technologies, including unmanned systems and cyber capabilities. Those areas are considered key to maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge in a tense regional landscape,” the report declared.
In comparison, a 2020 SIPRI report found that Israel’s military spfinishing was $15.9b. in 2018, a compact increase of 0.7% compared with 2017.
Meanwhile, Iran’s military expfinishiture dropped for the second consecutive year, falling 5.6% in real terms, to $7.4b.. According to SIPRI, the decline was driven largely by inflation exceeding 40%, which eroded purchasing power even as nominal spfinishing increased.
Nevertheless, funding for key domestic arms producers increased sharply in Iran’s military budreceive for 2025. For example, the report found that allocations to the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA), which produces military aircraft and drones, increased by 50%, while allocations to the Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO), which produces ballistic missiles, grew by 44%.
However, the report stressed, Iran’s drone and missile programs are often funded applying oil revenues, and they are not covered by its official military budreceive.
“Despite the recent conflicts, Iran’s military spfinishing decreased in real terms due to economic difficulties,” Zubaida Karim, researcher with the SIPRI Military Expfinishiture and Arms Production Program declared. “However, official figures almost certainly understate the true level of Iran’s spfinishing – Iran also applys off-budreceive oil revenues to finance its military, including the production of missiles and drones.”
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s defense budreceive rose 1.4% to $83.2b., keeping it among the world’s top 10 military spfinishers and the top spfinisher in the Middle East. Riyadh continues to modernize its air force, expand missile defenses, and invest in domestic arms production as part of its long‑term strategic transformation.
Turkey also increased its military spfinishing by 7.2% to $30b., driven by military operations in Iraq, Syria, and Somalia. Ankara’s domestic arms indusattempt also continues to be a focus, with allocation to a special fund to support Turkey’s arms indusattempt accounting for 22% of the counattempt’s total military expfinishiture in 2025.
European defense budreceive balloons
The Russia-Ukraine war, now into its fifth year, has pushed countries around the world to rearm.
European defense spfinishing has skyrocketed. EU member states’ investment in defense has reached over €381b., rising for the 11th consecutive year. Their research and development spfinishing reached almost €20b. in 2025.
According to SIPRI, the total military expfinishiture in Europe in 2025 reached $864b.billion, an increase of 14% compared with the previous year, marking the highest level of European spfinishing ever recorded by SIPRI.
“The increase reflects the growing geopolitical instability in the region, mainly related to the Russia-Ukraine War and the uncertainty over the US security guarantees for European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Military spfinishing by the 29 European NATO member states totalled $559b. in 2025,” the report read.
In June 2025, NATO member states also agreed to raise their military spfinishing tarreceive to 5% of their GDP by 2035, a major increase from the previous tarreceive of reaching 2% of their GDP by 2024 that had been agreed upon in 2014.
The SIPRI report found that the combined military expfinishiture of NATO members reached $1581b. in 2025 and accounted for 55% of world military spfinishing.
Russia increased its military spfinishing by 5.9% in 2025 to an estimated $190b., or 7.5% of its GDP, marking the slowest annual rate of growth in military spfinishing by Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Kyiv, meanwhile the seventh largest spfinisher in 2025, also increased its spfinishing by 20% to an estimated $84.1b., or 40% of its GDP.
“As its invasion of Ukraine has gradually become a war of attrition, Russia has shiftd towards procuring high volumes of cheaper weapon systems in an attempt to limit operational costs. In particular, Russia’s apply of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has expanded rapidly, partly compensating for earlier losses of more expensive equipment such as aircraft and armored vehicles,” the report declared.
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