By Brad Lendon, CNN
(CNN) — Global military spending surged by almost 3% in 2025, fueled largely by ballooning defense expenditures in Europe and Asia, according to a report released Monday by a respected arms watchdog group.
European defense spending jumped 14% from 2024, to $864 billion, and in Asia-Oceania the increase was 8.1%, to $681 billion, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual “Trends in World Military Expenditure” report.
Overall, almost $2.9 trillion was spent on military programs around the world in 2025, a 2.9% increase from a year earlier. The figure represents 2.5% of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), the highest percentage since 2009, according to SIPRI.
The US, China, Russia, Germany and India were the biggest spenders, collectively accounting for 58% of the global sum.
While the report notes that the year-on-year increase in total spend is a drop from the 9.7% increase recorded in 2024, it says that was largely due to the United States approving no new spending to help arm Ukraine in 2025. SIPRI counts foreign military assistance on the accounts of the donor country.
When the US is taken out of the statistics, global spending on defense rose 9.2% in 2025, the report says.
Still, the US remains the world’s No. 1 spender on the military – $954 billion in 2025 – followed by China, an estimated $336 billion, and Russia with an estimated $190 billion.
But it was US allies around the world that led the spending increase, revealing some generational changes.
“In 2025 military spending by European NATO members rose faster than at any time since 1953, reflecting the ongoing pursuit of European self-reliance alongside increasing pressure from the United States to strengthen burden sharing within the alliance,” Jade Guiberteau Ricard, a researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said in a statement.
NATO countries with big increases include Belgium (59%), Spain (50%), Norway (49%), Denmark (46%), Germany (24%), Poland (23%) and Canada (23%).
Germany’s total military spending of $114 billion ranks it No. 4 worldwide.
In Asia, Japan increased military spending by 9.7% to $62.2 billion, the report said. As a portion of Japan’s GDP, the 1.4% spent on defense was the highest for the country since 1958, the report said.
“US allies in Asia and Oceania such as Australia, Japan and the Philippines are spending more on their militaries, not only due to long-standing regional tensions but also due to growing uncertainty over US support,” SIPRI senior researcher Diego Lopes da Silva said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan, the democratic, self-ruled island that the Chinese Communist Party claims as part of its territory despite never having controlled it, increased its military expenditures by 14.2% to $18.2 billion (2.1% of GDP), its biggest jump since at least 1988, according to the SIPRI.
Under the Taiwan Relations Act, Washington is legally required to provide the island with the means to defend itself, and it supplies Taipei with defensive weaponry.
China’s defense spending increased 7.4% – the largest year-on-year jump in the past decade and the 31st year in a row it has gone up – as Beijing moves to meet a 2035 goal to modernize its forces, the report said.
As a percentage of GDP, Ukraine is the world’s biggest military spender, at an estimated 40%. Kyiv is in its fourth year fighting against a Russian invasion. Ukraine ranks No. 7 globally.
Russia devoted 7.5% of its GDP to the militar