NATO's defence budget will amount to almost USD 1.5 trillion this year

Before the Washington Summit, the North Atlantic Alliance has released another summary of defence spending, according to which the total defence budget of all NATO countries at current prices will reach almost USD 1.5 trillion in 2024.

According to Ukrinform, the summary data on defence spending and the corresponding infographic are published on NATO's website.

In particular, according to the data, the defence spending of European allies and Canada had negative growth rates and declined until 2014, before Russia's aggression against Ukraine, and began to grow consistently over the following years, with a sharp surge after Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

It was after Russia invaded Ukraine 10 years ago that Allies set a target of 2 per cent of GDP for defence spending. In 2023, 10 countries surpassed this target, and this year the number of such countries among Allies is expected to rise to 23.

The countries with defence spending below 2 per cent of GDP are still Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain.

In absolute terms (at current prices), over the past ten years, total defence spending by NATO Allies has increased from USD 943 billion 218 million in 2014 to USD 1 trillion 474 billion 399 million in 2024 (projected). The lion's share of this year's spending is accounted for by the United States - USD 967 billion 707 million, while the total defence spending of European allies and Canada is equivalent to USD 506 billion 693 million.

The United States, compared to other NATO members, has the largest number of military personnel - 1 million 300 thousand servicemen, while European allies and Canada together account for 2 million 118 thousand servicemen.

Among the countries with more than 100,000 military personnel are France (204.7 thousand), Germany (185.6 thousand), Greece (110.8 thousand), Italy (171.4 thousand), Poland (216.1 thousand), Spain (117.4 thousand), Turkey (481.0 thousand), and the United Kingdom (138.1 thousand).

In total, NATO countries, including the United States, Canada and European countries, have a manpower of 3 million 418,600 military personnel.

As Ukrinform reported, the NATO anniversary summit dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Alliance will take place in Washington on 9-11 July. During the summit, the allies are expected to agree that defence spending of 2 per cent of GDP should not be seen as a goal, but as a minimum defence budget for NATO member states.