The 65% jump in Israel’s defense spending in 2024 to $46.5 billion was the largest since the Six Day War of 1967, according to the annual Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report on military spending by nation. The report finds that “Military expenditure in the Middle East reached an estimated $243 billion in 2024, an increase of 15 per cent from 2023 and 19 per cent more than in 2015.” In December 2024 alone, Israel’s military expenditure was $5.7 billion.
Over the decade to the end of 2024, Israel’s military spending rose by 135%, bringing the country from 14th place worldwide for size of defense budget in 2023 to twelfth in 2024, overtaking Poland, which itself raised military spending because of the Russia-Ukraine war, and Italy.
As reported by “Globes” last November, Israel is second in the world for military expenditure as a proportion of GDP, after Ukraine. SIPRI estimates the proportion at 8.8%.
Another country that raised its military expenditure considerably last year was Lebanon, with a 58% rise to $635 million. Turkey had a defense budget of $25 billion in 2024, which compares with just $12 billion in 2023. By contrast, Iran reduced its military budget last year by 10%, to $7.9 billion.
Globally, defense expenditure grew last year for the tenth consecutive year, to $2.718 trillion, 37% more than in 2015. Global defense expenditure as a proportion of GDP rose by 2.5% last year.
In Europe, defense budgets grew by 17% last year to $693 billion, while the defense budget of Russia grew by 38% to $149 billion, double its size a decade previously, and representing 7.1% of the country’s GDP, which compares with 34% for Ukraine.
In central and western Europe, Germany stands out, with a 28% increase in military expenditure last year to $88.5 billion, putting it in fourth place worldwide. Its eastern neighbor Poland increased military expenditure by 31%, to $38 billion. 4.2% of its GDP. In NATO as a whole, defense budgets totaled $1.506 trillion. Eighteen of the 32 member countries met the target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defense. The leader was of course the US, with a defense budget of $997 billion.
In second place worldwide was China, which spent $314 billion on defense last year, representing 7% of its GDP. China accounts for half of total defense spending in the Asia and Oceania region. A long way behind it is Japan, which raised its military expenditure by 21% last year to $55.3 billion. The gap is wide, but this was the largest increase in military expenditure by Japan since 1952, and, at 1.4%, its expenditure was the highest as a proportion of GDP since 1958. Between China and Japan is India, with a 1.6% rise in military expenditure to $86.1 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on April 28, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
