Military Spending: US Tops the World with Biggest Budget

Data from World Bank has revealed that more than half of all global military spending comes from five countries with the United States (US) topping the list.

War is costly, and the way nations are setting aside their budgets for military-related activities is a clear attestation to the aforementioned statement.

The global expenditure on the military, according to the World Bank has increased by 2.6 percent in 2019 from 1.78 trillion dollars in 2018.

The United States spends mostly on defensive reasons and has its government has coughed 649 billion dollars to see the military activities go as successful.

China follows suit as the second country to allocate more funds on the military as the Chinese government has set aside more than 250 million dollars.

Saudi Arabia comes in third as the most military spending nation with a total budget of 67.6 billion US dollars. India is fourth with 66.5 billion dollars and France closes the top five list with total spending of 63.8 billion US dollars.

The USA projects its total military budget to increase in the year 2020 to enhance the defense and protection of its borders.

HowMuch, a data visualization wizard for World Bank, had mapped out an infographic that showed e information about all the countries with a sizeable military budget.

The HowMuch data shows the USA has been spending more on defense mechanisms while other countries have paid more attention on troops. Some countries like Haiti do not even have a single troop.

India has the largest number of standing armies. It boasts 3,031,000 troops. China falls second with 2,695,000 troops, Russia-1,454,000 and USA has 1’349,000 troops.

71 out of 143 countries have spent more than 1 billion US dollars to fund military activities.

Below is a simplified data on military expenditure globally;

• Top 5 Countries with the highest military spending

1. USA -649B dollars
2. China-250B dollars
3. Saudi Arabia-67.6B dollars
4. India-66.5B dollars
5. France-63B dollars

• Bottom 5 lowest military spenders

1. Haiti-79,700 dollars
2. Cabo Verde -10.7 million dollars
3. Gambia-11.5 Million dollars
4. Liberia- 15.8 Million dollars
5. Timor Leste-20.6 million dollars

• Largest Troops

1. India-3,031,000
2. China-2,695,000
3. Russia-1, 495,000
4. USA-1,359,000
5. Pakistan-936,000

• Smallest Troops

1. Haiti-0
2. Sycheelles-0
3. Gambia-1000
4. Cabo Verde-1000
5. Luxemborg-2000