Newly published figures from a Swedish think tank have revealed that global military expenditures in 2022, for the eighth consecutive year, reached an all-time high (around €2.04 trillion, or 2.2% of global GDP), with Europe’s precipitous increase in military spending contributing disproportionally to the trend.
In its report, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) noted that in 2022, European countries increased their military budgets faster than at any time since the end of the Cold War more than thirty years ago, mainly in response to the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
“The continuous rise in global military expenditure in recent years is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world,” Dr. Nan Tian, a senior researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, said.
“States are bolstering military strength in response to a deteriorating security environment, which they do not foresee improving in the near future,” he added.
Military expenditures by nation-states in central and western Europe amounted to more than €314 billion in 2022, an uptick of 13% compared to the previous year, and a sum that’s 30% higher than a decade ago. The continent’s total military expenditures last year, in real terms, exceeded that of 1989, the final year of the cold war, the report states.
The think tank notes that these figures do not take into account the sky-high inflation rates, meaning that expenditures were considerably higher.
Across the Continent, the sharpest increases were recorded in Finland (36%), followed by Lithuania (27%), Sweden (12%), and Poland (11%).
“The invasion of Ukraine had an immediate impact on military spending decisions in Central and Western Europe. This included multi-year plans to boost spending from several governments,” Dr. Diego Lopes da Silva, another senior researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, said.
“Many former Eastern bloc states have more than doubled their military spending since 2014, the year when Russia annexed Crimea,” Lopes da Silva added.
Da Silva notes in the report that military expenditures in central and western Europe are expected to “keep rising in the years ahead.”
The U.S., by far, remains the world’s largest military spender, at just under €800 billion, accounting for nearly 40% of military expenditures by nation-states across the world last year. It outspent the next ten countries combined in 2022, up from the next nine countries the previous year.
“The increase in the USA’s military spending in 2022 was largely accounted for by the unprecedented level of financial military aid it provided to Ukraine. Given the scale of US spending, even a minor increase in percentage terms has a significant impact on the level of global military expenditure,” said Tian.
The U.S., China, Russia, India, and the United Kingdom were the top five spenders on defense, collectively accounting for 62% of the world’s military expenditure.
