The Global Cost of War
A data-driven ledger of how the world spends on defense — the superpower balance, the alliances, the arms trade, the industry, the arsenals, the conflicts and the trade-offs against everything else.
The Global Bill
Spending on defense keeps climbing. Every dollar shows up somewhere — jobs, industry, weapons stockpiles — but the totals never quite stop growing.
Top 5 Spenders
WB + SIPRI (15)- 1. United States$997B 2024
- 2. China$314B 2024
- 3. Russia$149B 2024
- 4. Germany$89B 2024
- 5. India$86B 2024
Active State-Based Conflicts
UCDPThe highest count since UCDP began tracking in 1946 — up from the 1990s peace-dividend lows.
UN Peacekeeping Budget
UN Fifth CommitteeAbout 0.2% of what the world spends on militaries. Peacekeeping stays flat as defense budgets swell.
The Superpowers
Six-plus decades of defense spending in one view. Ten countries account for over three-quarters of the global total — watch the US, China and Russia diverge from 1960 onwards, in dollars and in share of GDP.
Alliances & Institutions
Every NATO member pledged 2% of GDP after the 2014 Wales summit. Estonia and Poland now spend triple that. Others still lag a decade later.
The Arms Trade
Major conventional weapons flow from a handful of exporters to a much larger group of importers. Below is the ranking, and the flows behind it.
The Arms Industry
Twenty-five companies do most of the actual building. Lockheed Martin alone outspends the smallest ten of them combined.
The Nuclear Balance
Nine states hold nuclear weapons. Russia and the United States between them still control roughly 90% of the global stockpile.
Live series (World Bank / SIPRI via WB API): MS.MIL.XPND.CD, MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS, MS.MIL.XPND.ZS, MS.MIL.XPRT.KD, MS.MIL.MPRT.KD, MS.MIL.TOTL.P1 · SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS · NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD. The USA slot on MS.MIL.XPND.CD is backfilled from FRED FDEFX when needed.
Fallback layer: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database 2018-2024 (2025 release) is baked in as a curated seed for 15 major spenders (USA, China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, UK, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, Israel, Poland, Italy, Australia). It only fills country slots that the live World Bank fetch didn't return — live values always win where present. Currently active for 15 country slots because the World Bank API declined those requests this session.
Curated snapshots: SIPRI Top 100 (Dec 2024 release), NATO annual defense expenditure (June 2025), FAS Nuclear Notebook 2025, UCDP v25.1, UN Fifth Committee.