Source:

SIPRI Military Expenditure Database

Genuine Impact newsletter

Tools:

Figma

You need to remove the outlier to be able to clearly show detail, looking at you mr dystopia

Saudi Arabia spends billions on guns yet can't win a war against their poor neighbors who fight wearing floppers

Correct, enemy faction amongst poor neighbours are supported by Iran and are willing to persist through enormous losses

From what I’ve been reading a time lapse over the next few years could be really interesting. When countries like Germany and Japan start talking about increasing defense spending you know things are serious

This is a bad map, why don’t they just colour allies and show what their total combined annual spend is and how that compares to the rest. An attach on an allied member is an attack on all

You don't really have a choice but to persist if you're being invaded in your country.

Congratulations, you have managed to list 8 of the 10 largest economies by nominal GDP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

With ROK and Saudi replacing Italy and Canada.

Well, it is a civil dispute as well, the other half of Yemen wouldn't view a Houthi victory over Saudi as good for them

[removed]

USA lost to rice farmers, soviets lost to afghanis . War is not won only by better guns

You’re delusional if you think the entirety of yemen wants houthis, like there isn’t a southern portion of the country that wants to revert the mistake of unification.

that's just a different map, which does not mean this is a bad one.

Its a little more complicated than that. Geopolitics define rules of engagement that can result in neutering one sides advantage. Just like Russia is losing the war in Ukraine, but could realistically win it any day they wanted by just nuking Kiev.

Or use a logarithmic scale

Unless the point of the map was not to actually compare data but to demonstrate how much more the US spends on defense than every other country. If that was the goal I would say it is pretty successful.

The fuck is Oman doing ? Are they Arming themselves due to Yemen ?

Oman is critical to western interests and as such they have naval bases that directly support the patrolling of the Persian gulf, this huge number is in part western funds to keep them strong and independent as a safe foothold in the area

The British lost to Icelandic fishermen with scissors.

US's budgets is higher than the other 9, combined

For the U.S., this wouldn't include aid to Ukraine, which is over 68 Billion. The amount would be the 4th highest in the world.

Also

Here is a list of the U.S. federal budget deficits for the last 10 fiscal years (October 1 to September 30):

Fiscal year 2022: $3.1 trillion

Fiscal year 2021: $3.1 trillion

Fiscal year 2020: $3.1 trillion

Fiscal year 2019: $984 billion

Fiscal year 2018: $779 billion

Fiscal year 2017: $665 billion

Fiscal year 2016: $587 billion

Fiscal year 2015: $438 billion

Fiscal year 2014: $483 billion

Fiscal year 2013: $680 billion

I'd love to see a breakdown of how much of the stated figures actually make their way through to defence spending. Case in point being Russia and those "1.5 million military uniforms" they had bought and stored away that ended up not existing.

I feel like there has to be some level of corruption or "palm greasing" that goes on everywhere, but based on evidence seen this year during the war in Ukraine, Russia must be number 1 on the chart of "allegedly spent on defence but actually bought a yacht for some dude instead".

Including % of GDP and $ for all countries identified on this map would be helpful

Suppressing armed enemies is so much harder than oppressing their wives.

Oman is practically an Israeli Colony

could realistically win it any day they wanted by just nuking Kiev. How do you define win?

They kill their own country men. They bomb their own land with radiation. The entire world comes after them, unlike how USA got away with doing the same twice.

It basically is an Israeli Colony.

Don’t forget Aussies lost to birds! /s

The usa got away with it because those that were invaded by the axis did more damage and harm for those countries. You aren’t gonna hear china/Korea complaining about Japan being nuked because Japan was occupying china and Korea. Russia ain’t gonna complain because Russia was also being invaded to some extent. Etc…

Australians lost to Emus

USA lost to rice farmers being supplied by communist China, Soviets lost to Afghanis being supplied by the US. Russia is currently losing to a Ukraine supplied by NATO. All wars would’ve been won by the superior opponent without outside intervention.

This map is for individual countries

Bro I hate when mfs say this. Those rice farmers were literal seasoned fighters that have been fighting consistently for over 30 years. Technology aside - Pound for pound - they were objectively well trained, determined, and effective

Emus are pretty terrifying though

Only 4% of the gdp though. So compared to the percent of gdp, it's a lot less than other countries.

Other than geopolitical significance, Oman (as well as Saudi and Algeria) also has a very large young male population who either become police or soldiers. It is basically giving them a job since there aren't many others. This is a better option than having them running around unemployed and frustrated.

But also pretty stupid, TBF

I am not sure if 5-7% GDP spending on excess military personnel is going to solve unemployment crisis in any meaningful way

They could have been made teachers or scientists to provide more boost to the economy than just foot soldiers

South Korea?

[removed]

[removed]

This is so depressive. And manic.

This is why you don’t mess with us

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/defense-spending-by-country

According to this the US is 16th in spending compared to GDP in 2020. Looking at the top 20-30, I can’t really say I feel like we’re in good company.

Yeah, RoK is ‘Republic of Korea’ (SK)

Yeah, and makes the map pretty damn useless for its title at the same time.

Even discount the larger U.S. economy, because we’re trying to project force around the world it is FAR more expensive than just trying to defend U.S. soil.

Did you know that Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland. Please don't use the Mercator projection for maps like this. I suggest Equal Earth or Eckert IV.

Mr. Mercator says Greenland STRONG

The US also has the largest airforce. Followed by the US Navy with the second largest.

[removed]

There are plenty of scientists and engineers and teachers(of sorts) in the military. It’s not just meatheads with guns

800, thats ridiculous. I live in a shithole and have become a phisician on free university education and have acess to a free universal healthcare that has provided for oncology treatment for more than one relative. You guys deserve better than this, americans are just awesome. Hope this change. Being a sole superpower is just sad. You guys could be colonizing the solar system by now

Why is the table at the bottom of Highest by GDP formatted the way it is? Is the empty space between the country name and percentage proportional the percentage?

The North Vietnam had tanks, artillery, surface-to-air missiles and even jet fighters, much supplied by the USSR and PRC.

The Afghans had weapons supplied by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. The stinger surface-to-air missiles sent by the U.S. were as sophisticated as any of the Soviet weapons.

Don’t act like simple rice farmers were using SA-2s they slapped together in their fields to shoot down B-52s.

[removed]

Would love to see military spending / tax revenue

That's mostly because most of Europe doesn't meet NATO's minimum recommended defense spending.

4% is double the minimum requirement.

Can we see the paired map of countries protected militarily by the US, please?

Maybe the map should should show Total Military Budget divided by Number of Countries Protected.

Yes, and 2% is the minimum. Should "developed" countries in Europe really be hitting just the minimum (of which they're not even meeting that) every year?

>4% of the gdp though. So compared to the percent of gdp, it's a lot less than other countries.

3.3%ish. And most of the west relies on US logistics and intelligence.

Even as a European I would be happy for the US to spend less and the Europeans to build out more logistics capability. The UK is the only country with a reasonable airlift capacity. French operations in west Africa partially depend on that and the US.

So are icelandic fishermen

We Americans spend that much on the military so the ‘shithole’ you live in can provide you with free university education and free universal healthcare. We spend that much on our military so your government doesn’t have to.

Well, it's their budget. Nato is a US project, they were able to increase their sphere of influence due to it. Why would these smaller countries do more than they can get away with?

They can spend extra money on what they care about. Sound like a pretty smart and developed move.

Yes. Cuz it’s about what world peace costs, and the US is the only country wealthy enough to be able to guarantee this.

When life gives you Yemen, you give Yemen aid.

Would've been so much better if you didn't use a linear scale for the colour mapping. The image itself barely conveys any useful information other than the fact the US and China lead. Right now it looks like the UK spends roughly the same on their military as Panama or Kosovo.

[removed]

What about Algeria?

There is a twist.... Military Expenditure contributes to GDP.

​

I know, weird, not the way I'd do it... but economists aren't ordinary people.

Yeah, but the emus were propped up by Mussolini, who had an interest in a fascist flightless bird state in the Pacific.

That doesnt make any sense. And I made compliments to your people. The only agressor around these parts ar the US itsef my friend...

That Mercator projection though.

I get it. The middle east really likes war.

Per capita or at least normalize by gdp ffs

They did indeed have soviet support . They also knew their way around the jungle .

Not Algerian, but they have historically been a bit of a punching bag to all their neighbors, Morocco, Libya, France, and Spain have all not been particularly friendly. Then more recently there have been more rebellions in Libya and Morocco with Islamic Terrorists in Mali. Think they are just not in a particularly stable area with few friends to rely on.

That's the gross dollar amount, what's more interesting is when you take into account PPP and what actually goes into a military budget (does coast guard get included? How about special projects like an aircraft carrier?)

"You think the military protects its citizens?"

[deleted]

of the top five

1. US airforce
2. US Navy
3. Russian Air Force (not sure how thats going these days)
4. US Army
5. US Marines

Holy shit I wasn’t aware that the army has its own batch of aircraft (I mean that’s what the airforce is for?). For the marines it makes sense I guess that they have their own.

A lot of the defense expenditures have to do with maintaining the military force structure including pay, healthcare both current and post service.

for the army and marines I believe they have aircraft so they dont have to rely on another branch of the military that has different protocals and chain of commands. also Different Missions, Different Aircraft. Different Capabilities

If US military spending goes down Europe, Israel, and a handful of others will go up. Better one big bad bully instead of dozens.

That's only going by number of aircraft. Going by value of aircraft, China and Russia are probably 2 and 3.

Bang for buck, I don't think anyone else even comes close. You could hand the actual dollar amount we spend to any other country and they couldn't produce a force with a fraction the capability.

That is probably true!. the marines are a great example. numerous smaller specialized aircraft.

>rice farmers

Those "rice farmers" were at that point hard-core veteran light infantry who had been fighting for over 3 decades by the time the Vietnam War kicked off, and were receiving shit-tons of military aid from China

[removed]

What’s the point

Whom US is afraid of?! Mexico? Canada?

Got a source on that?

Why would we exclude it?

It's a great strategy for peacetime. I think a lot of European nations are rethinking it in light of Russian aggression.

...a military career with heavy exposure to FMS, logistics, and strategic planning? You can't quantify the value or benefit of global military power projection, so obviously there isn't some peer-reviewed study to cite. However, the infrastructure of the U.S. military is light years ahead of anything else the world has ever seen. It's past the point that money is a limfac in what's possible or not.

I love how everyone is about avrage, china is there being a bit above... And then there is America being America

That’s fair thanks for sharing. I didn’t think your comment was completely outrageous, but definitely was a big statement to make.

Pretty sure those China numbers are incorrect.. unless the msm is lying to me

Defense per GDP is a biased statistic invented by pro defense budget people in the U.S. The U.S. has by far the largest GDP in the world so they use this statistic to water down our gigantic budget into a manipulated number. A poor man with a gun is paying just as much as a rich man with the same gun.

GDP is generally regarded as a "more is better, everyone benefits, the economy thrives" thing.

Military Expenditure is black hole into which you pour money and misery emerges.

log scale might be more appropriate

Is it my colour-blindness, or is that colour scale reeeeeally bad?

What? Going by value of aircraft probably makes the ranking less weighed in favor of Russia and China, no?

You also managed to use on of the worst map projections.

[removed]

And they'll never have to, the US isn't (can't) going to enforce it...because military bases (which the US has a lot of in Europe) are more important than NATO member spending the minimum

It is also one of the highest debt-to-GDP countries, especially if we only consider developed countries.

Source Source Source

[removed]

From an non-American perspective, sometimes I do think that the US is "invading" others in the name of "world peace". The middle-east is a great example. That's just my own thought tho. Not trying to start an argument as that would obviously be un-wise to do in an environment full of Americans

I think that was the point.

terrorists ur game is thru

cause now u have to answer to

AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!

(so lick my butt; suck on my balls)

[removed]

It’s mind boggling that the US of A spends more than all of Africa combined. Military expenditure in Africa increased to 43 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, growing from roughly 41 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year. (Statista)

The US still outspend China ($750 bn vs $237 per year.

Something that is never mentioned for these posts, is the value of money, or PPP. The value of 1 USD varies from country to country. In the EU, you might be able to get a tiny 2 cm piece of chocolate, while in Africa you can actually buy proper food. This applies for defence spending as well.

Furthermore, there is a lot of stuff that is not included in the e.g. Chinese defense budget, that IS however included in the US one (but stuff that China nonetheless spends money on). This should be corrected before one can make a proper comparison.

If one applies a modifier accounting for the PPP difference, then China is suddenly at $465 to $514 billion.

If one applies a modifier for both PPP and wage differences, then the equivalent budget would be around $882 to $988 billion.

Short video that goes over this, if one might be curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o39SFpfr6E8

But well, do note. It's China. So numbers are only guesstimates.

And who supplied the afghans with weapons they used to win against the US?

Algeria's budget increased a 100% to $22b, at 10% of the gdp

I'm more interested to see purchasing power, like what can 800B$ buy you in US vs what can 300B$ buy you in China.

I assume Chinese workers are paid like a lot less than US's, most materials in China should be cheaper so therefore difference might not be that huge.

Russia might be spending 65B$ but corruption is huge there, so who knows how much money really goes where it should go.

Its also because the US does not actually meet the amount asked by the UN

[removed]

Often it was the U.S. supplying both the weapons and the training, but Pakistan, China, and Iran were all involved too.

It's not just you! This is one of the hazards of plotting data with severe outliers onto colors.

Among many others, including our own shadow.

All that money wasted. We could have colonized Alfa Centauri by now.

Time for a change.

GDP is also generally regarded as highly misunderstood because people don't know what it actually means other than "size of the economy".

Seeing how Russia is fairing (which NATO is the explicit counterweight to), 2% seems high if anything.

US has about 20% of Africa’s population, and a GDP of $25T compared to $3T for Africa.

[removed]

I feel like the “Rich man, poor man” metaphors don’t go that well to argue against this metric, because the next step is “Do you want to be a rich man without a gun surrounded by poor men with guns?”

Believe it or not, the US has a military presence outside of it’s immediate geographic neighbors. It also projects force even further than that.

I don’t think Mexico and Canada are at the top of the list of countries that the US spends it’s military budget worrying about. Perhaps it’s border security budget (but even then, maybe not - airport security).

That sounds incredibly complicated (like, literally a sizable fraction of the complexity of all US foreign policy), and really divisive (I.e. would all NATO countries count? Would Ukraine? India? Pakistan? Saudi Arabia? Israel? Taiwan?). You can make really good arguments that the answer for any of those is “yes” or “no”. For that reason, I think such an illustration would be difficult to construct, and impossible to treat as data without an agenda.

It’d be great if there were some good way to measure corruption and put it into the graph. But I suspect that’d be hard. It might also be divisive - if a US senator holds up a defense appropriations bill until some spending for their district is added, is that corruption? I suspect you can find conflicting, earnest, legitimate answers to that question.

Very true. It's probably impossible to ever know for sure the true level of actual corruption. What might be easier to find is what proportion of the budget actually made it through to nee hardware or training, although I'm sure there's plenty of creative accounting that can be done to disappear a couple of billion pretty easily.

I think it fits perfectly. There are two men equally spending for a gun. To muddy the waters with a statistic like price per gun per income is misleading. Military spending per GDP is equally as misleading and it is misleading on purpose to justify outrageous budgets in the U.S.

Only an American would belive that

It's interesting you say that, one of the primary architects of the modern metric (Kuznets) had a similar critique, in that no one should use national income metrics as a shorthand for all encompassing prosperity. Totally agree on that point.

I think calling military expenditure a black hole is a little bit reductive. Many of our technological advances were at least partially accomplished by military funding. We probably wouldn't even be having this online thread without the billions of $ the US military put into ARPANET.

> Military Expenditure is black hole into which you pour money and misery emerges.

World peace exists because of, and not in spite of, US military spending. The last 30 -50 years are among the most peaceful in human history.

There is an applicable term here... "Opportunity Cost" what is the cost of lost opportunities to advance peaceful technologies?

Once the US stops bombing the rest of the planet into peace, they'll commence their Next Grand Plan... Fucking for Virginity.

Yes, Scooby Doo made it