A ranking of the world’s most militarized economies in terms of military spending as a percentage of GDP in 2025, based on information from SIPRI’s Military Expenditure Database, will help.
Ukraine stands apart
Ukraine’s military spending reached 39.6% of GDP in 2025, significantly higher than any other country included in the statistics. This reflects the extraordinary financial pressures of fighting a full-scale Russian invasion.
In absolute terms, Ukraine’s defense spending is $84 billion, less than Russia’s, but significantly larger relative to the size of its economy.
This also emphasizes Ukraine’s dependence on Western military and financial support. Without external assistance, this level of spending will be difficult for the country’s domestic economy to sustain.
Who else is in the lead
Algeria is second on the list (8.8%), followed by Israel (7.8%).
Then follows Russia (7.5%), Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan (6.5% each). Armenia, which is in conflict with Azerbaijan, has 6.1%.
It is interesting to see such countries as Latvia (3.6%) and Estonia (3.4%), which seem to have nothing to fear – they are members of the EU and NATO.
The US has 3.1% of GDP spent on defense, they are in 23rd place.
Romania has 2.3 percent, Moldova 0.6 percent, but the authorities are very eager to bring this figure at least to 1 percent.
