Military Spending Skyrocketing Across the Globe

Researcher:  Nick Sieben

Faculty Advisor:  Julie Andrzejewski, St. Cloud State University

Evaluator:  Carla Magnuson

A recent research study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that World military spending has grown 45 percent in the past decade, with the United States accounting for nearly half of all the expenditures. Military spending grew six percent last year alone spending 1,339 billion dollars or 202 dollars per each of the world’s 6.6 billion people, were spending on arms and military expenditures alone, which 2.5 percent of the global domestic product, with the United States spending 547 billion dollars last year or 45 percent of the world’s total. Britain, China, France, and Japan are the next largest big military spenders accounting for just four to five percent of the world military costs each, lagging far behind the astronomical amount the United States is spending. The largest regional growth was in Eastern Europe which increased its military spending 162 percent between 1998 and 2007. Sixty-three of the 100 top weapons firms are based in the United States and Western Europe, accounting along for 292.3 billion dollars in sales in 2006, which was the last year SIPRI has numbers.

Sources:

“Global Military Spending Soars 45 Percent in 10 Years.” Agence France Presse, 9 June 2008  http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/09/9503