Last Year’s Trump-Driven Arms Race... South Korea Drops Two Spots to 13th in Global Military Spending

SIPRI Releases 2025 Military Expenditure Statistics

Global Military Spending Excluding U.S. Up 9.2%

South Korea Increases Defense Budget by 2.6%

Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump called for “self-reliant defense” worldwide, leading to an increase of over 9% in military spending among all countries except the U.S. South Korea also increased its spending, but its global ranking dropped two places from 11th to 13th.

On the 25th (local time), rescue workers are conducting operations at a residential building in Dnipro city, Ukraine, which was hit by a Russian airstrike. Photo by AP News Agency

According to the “2025 Global Military Expenditure Statistics” released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in Sweden on April 27 (local time), total global military spending last year reached 2.89 trillion dollars, a 2.9% increase from the previous year. This marks the 11th consecutive year of growth. While the overall growth rate appears much lower than the 9.7% year-on-year increase in 2024, when excluding the U.S., the increase rises to 9.2%.

The United States reduced its military spending by 7.5% compared to the previous year. Along with China and Russia, the U.S. remains one of the top three military spenders, together accounting for about half (51%) of global military expenditures. Since the launch of the Trump administration in February last year, it has significantly cut security aid budgets for Ukraine, stating that “European allies must take the lead in deterring Russia.” However, SIPRI noted that the Trump administration is simultaneously increasing its own investments in nuclear and conventional military capabilities, suggesting that the decrease in spending is a “temporary phenomenon.”

During the same period, countries in Europe (14% increase), as well as in Asia and Oceania (8.1% increase), made substantial boosts to their military budgets. As transatlantic (U.S.-Europe) relations reached unprecedented levels of strain, the debate over rearmament intensified among NATO member states in Europe. In Asia, military tensions between Japan and China escalated, while uncertainty over U.S. support grew. In fact, both Japan (9.7% increase) and China (7.4% increase) competitively ramped up their military expenditures.

South Korea’s global ranking in military spending dropped from 11th to 13th. The country spent 47.8 billion dollars on military expenditures, a 2.6% increase from the previous year. The ratio to gross domestic product (GDP) was 2.6%, and South Korea accounted for 1.7% of total global spending. Although South Korea increased its spending, it was outpaced by faster increases in other countries.

Russia (5.9% increase) and Ukraine (20% increase), now in their fourth year of war, also aggressively expanded their military investments. In particular, Ukraine, facing reduced U.S. support, dramatically increased its military spending. Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP amounted to 7.5% for Russia and 40% for Ukraine.

This trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Xiaoliang, a researcher for SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, said, “Considering the various crises currently being faced and the long-term military spending goals of several countries, the trend of increasing (defense budgets) is likely to persist through 2026 and beyond.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.