Chart of the week: Nato
This week's infographic focuses on Nato and their plans for defense spending. It shows that 23 out of the 32 member countries are projected to allocate 2% of their GDP towards defense by 2024, with discussions to potentially raise the target to 2.5%.
Nato Secretary General and current Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will likely be happy that the Netherlands will meet the 2% of GDP defense requirement in 2024. The Netherlands is one of 23 Nato members planning to spend 2% or more of GDP on defense, which is an increase from 10 countries in 2023.
The group just released its yearly report on how much money countries spent on defense from 2014 to 2024. They looked at spending from 31 out of 32 members. This year's report also includes Sweden, who joined on March 7, 2024, and Finland, who joined on April 4, 2023.
The blog section talks about how there are eight countries in the alliance that have not yet reached the goal of spending 2% of their GDP on defense. Spain has the lowest defense spending compared to the size of its economy, only 1.28% of forecast GDP. They plan to reach the 2% goal by 2029. Other countries like Luxembourg, Slovenia, Belgium, Canada, Italy, Portugal, and Croatia also have plans to reach the 2% goal within the next few years. Croatia, for example, aims to reach the goal by 2025 after failing to do so this year.
Seventeen countries are predicted to allocate between 2% and 2.5% of their GDP in 2024. These include Slovakia, Montenegro, Albania, Netherlands, France, Turkey, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria, Norway, North Macedonia, Romania, Denmark, and Finland. Additionally, six countries are expected to spend more than 2.5% of their GDP: Lithuania, Greece, Latvia, USA, Estonia, and Poland.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has caused the Baltic states, Poland, and Finland to increase their defense spending compared to their GDP, along with the USA and Greece. The UK is among the countries advocating for NATO to raise its defense spending target to 2.5% due to worsening global security conditions.
The biggest economies contribute the most to defense spending, with an estimated total of £1,160bn in 2024. The largest contributors include the USA with £761.2bn, Germany with £76.8bn, the UK with £64.6bn, France with £50.6bn, and Poland with £27.5bn. Other countries like Canada, Italy, and Türkiye also make significant contributions.
The combined military spending of all Nato countries in 2024 is projected to reach 2.71% of their total GDP, or 2.02% without including the USA. This marks the first instance in the 21st century where non-US spending has surpassed the 2% threshold.
The chart does not include the number of active military members, which Nato estimates to be 3.4 million soldiers, sailors, marines, aircrew, and guardians in the armed forces of member countries. The USA leads with 1,300,200 personnel, followed by Turkey (481,000), Poland (216,100), France (204,700), Germany (185,600), Italy (171,400), the UK (138,100), Spain (117,400), Greece (110,800), Canada (77,100), Romania (66,600), Netherlands (41,900), Finland (30,800), Czechia (29,500), Portugal (28,400), Bulgaria (26,900), Norway (24,300), Sweden (23,100), Belgium (21,300), Hungary (20,900), Lithuania (18,500), Denmark (17,300), Slovakia (15,600), Croatia (13,700), Latvia (8,400), Estonia (7,500), Albania (7,000), North Macedonia (6,100), Slovenia (5,900), Montenegro (1,600), and Luxembourg (900). These numbers do not include reserve forces that can be called upon if needed.
In the United Kingdom, the discussion is shifting away from aiming for 2.5% of GDP in the near future to considering the possibility of reaching 3% of GDP by the 2030s. This is being discussed in order to protect against a growing number of potential dangers.
Explore further: Military spending of NATO member nations (2014-2024)
