Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

The SIPRI database provides data on military expenditure for more than 160 countries. The SIPRI provides data for the period of 1949-2024 (or most recent year) and it is updated annually.

On the assumption that expenditure is spread evenly throughout the year if financial years do not align with calendar years, local currency military spending at current prices is presented for each country by financial year and by calendar year. The data is provided according to calendar year in terms of current and constant (2023) US dollars, as a percentage of GDP, and on a per capita basis. The financial year is used to represent data as a percentage of total government expenditure. The online database is available at https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex.

The sources for military expenditure data are, in order of priority: (a) primary sources, that is, official data provided by national governments, either in their official publications or in response to questionnaires; (b) secondary sources which quote primary data; and (c) other secondary sources. The second category includes international statistics, such as those of NATO and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

SIPRI military expenditure data is based on open sources only. The database is revised when new and better sources are available. Therefore, there is sometimes considerable variation between data sets for individual countries in different yearbooks.

The last update was May of 2025.

Table	Definition	Unit	Years	Source	Name in Source	Code in Source
GovtMil%GDPSIPRI	Military expenditures as percent of GDP (SIPRI)	Percent	1949-2024	https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex	Military expenditure by country as percentage of gross domestic product, 1948-2024	Share of GDP

Data Pulling Instructions

1. Go to https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex

2. Download the highlighted Excel file. The data for GovtMil%GDPSIPRI will be under the tab "Share of GDP".

3. Use Control F to find and remove "..." and "xxx" as these characters can make importing into IFs or using a script difficult.

4. If you are importing using IFs, change the number format from percent to number (keeping the same value) as IFs will read the percent format and change it to it's decimal value (ex. 1.63% will become 0.02 rounded).

World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers

Often pulled with the SIPRI data are the World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers reports. These reports have been discontinued because Section 5114(b)(4) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 repealed the 1994 statutory provision that required the Department of State to publish an edition of WMEAT every year. Therefore, WMEAT 2021 is the last report. However, the table is still used in IFs.

Table	Definition	Unit	Years	Source	Original Source
GovtMil%GDP	Military expenditures as percent of GDP (ACDA)	Percent	1995-2017,2019	WMEAT report 2005-2021	https://www.state.gov/world-military-expenditures-and-arms-transfers/

To Pull the Data:

Navigate to https://www.state.gov/world-military-expenditures-and-arms-transfers/

Select the report you need (i.e World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers 2021)

There are two types of tables; "Military Expenditures and Armed Forces Personnel" and "Arms Transfer Deliveries." Make sure you pick Military Expenditures and Armed Forces Personnel. Then download the associated Excel spreadsheet.

The data will be under "Percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to which Military Expenditures are equivalent" or some variation. Some others may be "ME/GDP ("military burden")"

Use the highest value of the percentages in the "last year covered" section.