Center for Defense Information
Research Topics
Television
CDI Library
Press
What's New
Search

       
      FACT SHEET
       Prepared by the Center for Defense Information
       Ph: (202) 332-0600/Fax: (202) 462-4559
       
      By Chris Hellman, Research Analyst
      		February 1, 1999
       

      Last of the Big Time Spenders:

      U.S. Military Budget Still the World's Largest, and Growing

      Selected Countries Military Budget
      United States $281 Billion
      Russia*  $64
      China*  $37
      United Kingdom  $37
      Japan  $35
      France  $30
      Germany  $26
      Saudi Arabia  $18
      Italy  $17
      South Korea*  $15
      Taiwan*  $14
      Brazil  $14
      India  $10
      Turkey  $8
      Australia  $7
      Netherlands  $7
      Israel  $7
      Spain  $6
      Canada  $6
      Iran  $6
      North Korea*  $5
      Greece  $4
      Kuwait  $4
      Poland+  $3
      Pakistan  $3
      Belgium  $3
      Norway  $3
      Denmark  $3
      Egypt  $3
      Syria  $2
      Portugal  $2
      Libya  $1
      Iraq  $1
      Vietnam  $1
      Czech Republic+  $1
      Cuba $0.7
      Hungary+  $0.6
      Sudan  $0.3

      Figures are for latest year available, usually 1998. Expenditures are used in a few cases where official budgets are much lower than actual spending.

      * 1997 Expenditures
      + Became NATO members in March, 1999.

      Table prepared by Center for Defense Information.

      Sources: International Institute for Strategic Studies, Department of Defense

      "For 45 years of the Cold War we were in an arms race with the Soviet Union. Now it appears we're in an arms race with ourselves."

      Admiral Eugene Carroll, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.)
      Deputy Director
      Center for Defense Information


      [HOME] [ISSUE AREAS]