Global military expenditure:
2007 figures now available

11 June 2008

SIPRI’s annual compendium of data and analysis of developments in security and conflicts, military spending and armaments and non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament was launched at a press conference in Stockholm on Monday. Below is a summary of the contents - more information, chapter summaries, and details of how to order a copy of the 2008 Yearbook 'Armaments, Disarmament and International Security' are available here.

On military spending and trade in weapons: SIPRI reports that world military expenditure is estimated to have been $1,339 billion in 2007 - a real-terms increase of 6% over 2006 and of 45% 1998. This corresponded to 2.5 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP) and $202 for each person in the world. The factors driving increases in world military spending include aspiration to global or regional power status, actual or potential conflicts, and the availability of economic resources.

Global weapons production is increasing. Weapons sales by the 100 largest arms-producing companies (the ‘SIPRI Top 100’) amounted to $315 billion in 2006, an increase of 8% in nominal terms over 2005. US companies dominate the Top 100, both numerically and financially, with West European companies some way behind. International transfers of major conventional weapons over the period 2003 to 2007 were 7% higher than in 2002 to 2006. The 5 largest weapons suppliers for the period 2003 to 2007 - the USA, Russia, Germany, France and the UK - accounted for about 80% of the volume of transfers.

Contents: The SIPRI Yearbook is a compendium of data and analysis in the areas of security and conflicts, military spending and armaments, non-proliferation, and arms control and disarmament.

Highlights of the 39th edition include special studies on: the human security approach to direct and structural violence, integrating gender in post-conflict security sector reform, US ballistic missile defence programmes, nuclear forensic analysis, international public health diplomacy and the global surveillance of avian influenza; as well as coverage of developments during 2007 in: Euro-Atlantic security institutions and relationships, armed conflicts, peace operations, military expenditure, arms production, international arms transfers, nuclear arms control and non-proliferation, world nuclear forces and fissile material stocks, reducing security threats from chemical and biological materials, conventional arms control, controls on security-related international transfers, arms control and disarmament agreements, and international organizations and intergovernmental bodies.

The SIPRI Yearbook 2008 is published on behalf of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute by Oxford University Press.