Spending weapons reached a record high in 2025. New data military spending has been published the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It writes a report every year called "Trends World Military Expenditure". SIPRI stated that global defence spending was nearly $2.9 trillion last year. This was a three per cent rise compared to 2024. Spending armed forces has now risen eleven years a row. Europe's defence spending shot by 14 per cent, to $864 billion. The Asia-Oceania region increased its spending 8.1 per cent, to $681 billion. The USA remained the biggest spender defence. It spent $954 billion on its military last year.
There are several reasons the record levels spending in Europe. One reason is that all NATO members met their target to spend two per cent their GDP on defence. Last year, NATO members agreed to a new target five per cent 2035. Another reason is the war between Russia and Ukraine. This conflict is now its fifth year. Russia spent around $190 billion defence. This was 7.5 per cent of its GDP. Ukraine spent an unbelievable 40 per cent of its GDP the war. SIPRI said that the increased spending "really speaks to countries' reactions to ongoing wars, tensions and geopolitical uncertainty". It added: "This trend will probably continue 2026 and ."
