Record amounts of rearmament in the world

Total world military spending increased by 3.7 percent in real terms in 2022.

The biggest increase was in Europe, where spending rose 13 percent for the year, according to a report by peace research institute Sipri. In total, military spending in the countries of Central and Western Europe amounted to $345 billion, roughly 3,500 billion kroner.

The invasion of Ukraine had an immediate impact on military spending decisions in Central and Western Europe. This includes several governments’ multi-year plans to increase spending, Diego Lopez da Silva, a researcher with the Sipri program on military spending and arms production, said in a press release.

Exponential increase in Ukraine

In Ukraine, military spending increased by 640 percent. It is the largest increase in military spending by one country in a year that Sipri has recorded so far.

Russia’s spending on the army increased during the year by 9.2 percent, to reach about $86.4 billion.

“The gap between Russia’s projected budget and actual military spending in 2022 suggests that the invasion of Ukraine cost Russia more than expected,” said Lucy Peraud-Soudrou, head of the Sipri Research Program on Military Spending and Arms Production.

Most of the spending in the United States

Despite the increase in Europe, the United States remained the largest military spender in the world in 2022, with 39 percent of the global total and three times the second largest military spender, China.

It is the eighth year in a row that an increase in global military spending has been observed, indicating that we live in an increasingly uncertain world, says Nan Tian of the Military Spending and Arms Production Research Program at Sipri.

“Countries are strengthening their military capabilities in response to the deterioration of the security environment, which they do not believe will improve in the near future,” he said in a press statement.