Chart: Military spending is rising fastest in Asia and Eastern Europe

Asian countries such as India and China have steadily increased their defense spending over the past fifteen years. However, compared to the respective countries’ GDP, expenditure has grown roughly in line with GDP since 2013, reaching about 2.4 percent in India and 1.7 percent in China last year. In addition to the military prowess of their major neighbors, other countries in Asia have also seen rapid growth in military spending. This applies to countries close to the regional security hotspot of the South China Sea, for example Cambodia and the Philippines. To a lesser extent, East Asian countries such as Japan and of course Taiwan themselves also saw rising military expenditures.

After the Russian invasion, Eastern Europe is another region where military spending has increased, and more precipitously than in Asia – led by Ukraine, where the military now accounts for more than a third of GDP. North American military spending has fluctuated but remains the largest regional budget, with the vast majority of spending tied to the U.S. military. Western European spending – often criticized for being too low compared to the country’s size and GDP – has increased only slightly since the Ukraine crisis, but had already been growing steadily before the current crisis.

Spending in Latin America and Africa remained stable overall. Some African countries have also rapidly increased their defense spending. These include Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Mauritania. Spending also rose in Mexico.