10 Biggest Spenders on War

One country clearly leads the pack
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted May 7, 2017 12:04 PM CDT
10 Biggest Spenders on War
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb.   (Eglin Air Force Base via AP)

Democrats and Republicans might squabble regularly about how much the US spends on its military, but one thing is not in doubt: Uncle Sam spends the most of any country in the world, accounts for more than a third of the entire planet's defense spending, and outpaces the next closest country by almost $400 billion. Here are the biggest military spenders, per 24/7WallSt, along with their 2016 spending, and spending as a percentage of GDP:

  1. United States, $611 billion, 3.3%
  2. China, $215 billion, 1.9% (of note, China's military spending shot up 118% between 2007 and 2016)
  3. Russia, $69.2 billion, 5.3%
  4. Saudi Arabia, $63.7 billion, 10%
  5. India, $55.9 billion, 2.5%
  6. France, $55.7 billion, 2.3%
  7. United Kingdom, $48.3 billion, 1.9%
  8. Japan, $46.1 billion, 1%
  9. Germany, $41.1 billion, 1.2%
  10. South Korea, $36.8 billion, 2.7%
For the full list of the top 15, click here. (More military spending stories.)

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