The top three largest military spenders in the world were the United States, China and India, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday, adding that the world military expenditure reached an all-time high of USD 2.1 trillion in 2021.
“Total global military expenditure increased by 0.7 per cent in real terms in 2021, to reach USD 2113 billion. The five largest spenders in 2021 were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia, together accounting for 62 per cent of expenditure,” said SIPRI.
Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, SIPRI’s Senior Researcher noted that world military spending hit record levels even amid the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There was a slowdown in the rate of real-terms growth due to inflation. In nominal terms, however, military spending grew by 6.1 percent,” he added.
According to the Stockholm based institute, India’s military spending of USD 76.6 billion in 2021 was up by 0.9 per cent from 2020 and by 33 per cent from 2012.
US military spending reached USD 801 billion in 2021, a drop of 1.4 per cent from 2020, according to SIPRI.
SIPRI claims it “monitors developments in military expenditure worldwide and maintains the most comprehensive, consistent and extensive publicly available data source on military expenditure.”
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