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Nigel G Wilcox
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Aircraft And Military Development & Applications
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Countries Spending Most on Their Militaries
No. 2019 Military Nation Ranking
1.
   United States
2.
   China
3.
   Saudi Arabia
4.   Russian Rederation
5.
   India
6.
   France
7.
   United Kingdom
8.
   Japan
9.
   Germany
10.
   Korea
11.
   Brazil
12.
   Italy
13.
   Australia
14.
   Canada
15.
   Turkey
16.
   Israel
17.
   Spain
18.
   Iran, Islam Rebublic
19.
   Pakistan
20.
   Singapore
21.
   Algeria
22.
   Netherlands
23.
   Poland
24.
   Colombia
25.
   Oman
26.
   Indonesia
27.
   Iraq
28.
   Kuwait
29.
   Norway
30.
   Thailand
31.
  Mexico
32.
   Argentina
33.
   Sweden
34.
   Chile
35.
   Greece
36.
   Vietnam
37.
   Switzerland
38.
   Belgium
39.
   Sudan
40.
   Philippines
41.
   Romania
42.
   Denmark
43.
   Portugal
44.
   Ukraine
45.
   South Africa
46.
   Finland
47.
   Banladesh
48.
   Malaysia
49.
   Morocco
50.
   Angola
   Total Top 50
Bookshelf
President Donald Trump continues to make headlines with his demands that America's fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) devote more of their budgets toward military and defense spending.

The alliance between the U.S. and a number of European powers was formed in April 1949 in hopes of deterring the Soviet Union from its conquest of Europe. It was founded on the principle of collective defense, which means that every member of NATO will come to the aid of any other member that is attacked. That's one reason why, for example, French and British troops fought in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11.

This theory of collective defense requires collective spending so that every ally has a military that's fully prepared to help when called to do so. While it's almost universally agreed that some military spending is necessary for security purposes, especially given the ever-rising threats of terrorism around the world, it's still unclear how much defense spending is adequate.

It is also often difficult to pinpoint what a country spends on its military in a given year. In 2002, NATO defined military expenditure to include: current spending on the armed forces (including peacekeeping and paramilitary forces), defense ministries and other government agencies involved in defense, military space activities, personnel costs (pensions and social services), aid, research and development, operation and maintenance, and procurement of military supplies.

However, despite that lengthy definition, coming up with an accurate calculation can be a formidable task. One country might consider certain costs to be military expenditures while another might classify them as some other kind of spending. In addition, because some countries aren't transparent about their military budgets, the data that experts put forth may not match the figures released by governments.

Still, getting even a general handle on which countries are spending the most on their militaries is helpful in discovering where hotspots are—from confrontations in the South China Sea to counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East—and identifying, for better or worse, the nations with the most firepower.

Using data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) via The World Bank, Stacker ranked the 50 countries spending the most on their military, based on estimates from 2017. North Korea is notably missing from the list, as data was not available for it from 2017. The list provides a sweeping view of pressing conflicts around the world today.
Countries spending the most on their militaries
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