Global military spending rose 2.65 percent to $1.92 trillion in 2019, according to a research report by Learnbonds.com.
Generally, over the last two decades, the total military spending was $30.95 trillion with an average of $1.63 trillion per year.
The global military spending was 2.2 percent of the GDP in 2019.
The United States was the biggest spender on the military at $732 billion, representing 38 percent of global defense spending.
The US spend was almost three times more than China’s military spending at $261 billion. India was the third-highest spender at $71.1 billion for military followed by Russia at $65.1 billion while Saudi Arabia was fifth at $61.9 billion.
The top 15 countries spent about $1.6 trillion on the military, which represents 80 percent of the total spending in 2019.
North America accounts for the highest military spending globally with 39 percent followed by Asia and Oceania at 27 percent. Europe is third with 19 percent followed by South America at 2.8 percent.
Africa accounts for 2.1 percent of the global military spending followed by Central America and the Caribbean at 0.5 percent.
All 54 African countries combined account for 2.1 percent of the global military spending, the report said.
Based on military spending compared to the gross domestic product spend between 2001 and 2019, Saudi Arabia is top with 8 percent followed by Israel at 5.3 percent. Russia’s military spending accounts for 3.9 percent of the GDP followed by the United States at 3.4 percent.
