Europe’s rearmament push drives global military spending to record $2.9

Europe ramped up military spending in 2025 — a longstanding demand of U.S. President Donald Trump — helping drive global defense outlays to a staggering $2.89 trillion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Major rearmament programs in Asia also pushed global defense spending higher for an 11th straight year in 2025, SIPRI said in a report published Monday.

SIPRI said the increase was fueled by “another year of wars, uncertainty and geopolitical upheaval with large-scale armament drives.”

Global military spending as a share of GDP climbed to 2.5%, its highest level since 2009, the report showed.

Europe was the main driver of the increase in global spending, with spending rising 14% to $864 billion.

Excluding Russia, Germany was the region’s largest military spender, with expenditure climbing 24% from a year ago to $114 billion. Berlin’s military burden exceeded NATO’s guideline of 2% GDP for the first time since 1990 — reaching 2.3% in 2025 — a benchmark alliance members are encouraged to meet.

Spain’s military spending jumped 50% to $40.2 billion, bringing its defense burden above 2% of GDP for the first time since the NATO spending target was agreed in 1994.

In June 2025, NATO members, except Spain, had outlined a long-term goal to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2025. Madrid had opted out of the 5% commitment.

The U.S. remained the world’s largest defense spender at $954 billion. China, the second largest, increased spending by 7.4% to an estimated $336 billion. Some experts have argued that China’s actual number could be much higher, as Beijing does not fully disclose its military spending.

“The decline in U.S. military expenditure in 2025 is likely to be short-lived,’ said Nan Tian, director of SIPRI’s military expenditure and arms production program.

The Pentagon has requested about $1.5 trillion in defense spending for fiscal 2027, which would mark the largest request in history.