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Countries in Asia by military spending

Military expenditure as a share of GDP, from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: armed forces, defence ministries, military aid and the paramilitary forces trained for military operations. 37 countries in Asia, highest first. World Bank, mostly 2024

See it on the map
Map: Military spending — Asia
Highest
8.8%
Israel
Median country
2.3%
half above, half below
Lowest
0.4%
Kazakhstan
#Country% of GDPYearRegion
1Israel8.8%2024Western Asia
2Saudi Arabia7.3%2024Western Asia
3Myanmar6.8%2024South-Eastern Asia
4Qatar6.5%2022Western Asia
5Oman5.6%2024Western Asia
6Armenia5.5%2024Western Asia
7Azerbaijan5.0%2024Western Asia
8Kuwait4.8%2024Western Asia
9Jordan4.8%2024Western Asia
10Brunei3.6%2024South-Eastern Asia
11Kyrgyzstan3.0%2024Central Asia
12Bahrain2.9%2024Western Asia
13Singapore2.8%2024South-Eastern Asia
14Pakistan2.7%2024Southern Asia
15Timor-Leste2.7%2024South-Eastern Asia
16Lebanon2.6%2024Western Asia
17South Korea2.6%2024Eastern Asia
18Iraq2.4%2024Western Asia
19India2.3%2024Southern Asia
20Iran2.0%2024Southern Asia
21Turkey1.9%2024Western Asia
22Georgia1.9%2024Western Asia
23Tajikistan1.9%2024Central Asia
24Afghanistan1.8%2021Southern Asia
25China1.7%2024Eastern Asia
26Cyprus1.6%2024Western Asia
27Cambodia1.5%2024South-Eastern Asia
28Sri Lanka1.4%2024Southern Asia
29Japan1.4%2024Eastern Asia
30Philippines1.3%2024South-Eastern Asia
31Thailand1.1%2024South-Eastern Asia
32Malaysia1.0%2024South-Eastern Asia
33Nepal1.0%2024Southern Asia
34Bangladesh0.9%2024Southern Asia
35Indonesia0.8%2024South-Eastern Asia
36Mongolia0.7%2024Eastern Asia
37Kazakhstan0.4%2024Central Asia

No World Bank figure for 11 countries: Bhutan, Laos, Maldives, North Korea, Syria, Taiwan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.

Questions

Which country in Asia has the highest military spending?
Israel has the highest military spending in Asia: 8.8% of GDP (2024). Next come Saudi Arabia (7.3% of GDP) and Myanmar (6.8% of GDP).
Which country in Asia has the lowest military spending?
Kazakhstan, with 0.4% of GDP (2024).
What is the typical military spending of a country in Asia?
The median of the 37 countries in Asia is 2.3% of GDP: half are above it, half below. The median, not the average, because a few countries at the top would drag an average far above almost everyone.
Where do the figures come from?
Military expenditure as a share of GDP, from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: armed forces, defence ministries, military aid and the paramilitary forces trained for military operations. Source: World Bank, mostly 2024. Only independent states are ranked; territories are listed separately. A country’s continent follows Natural Earth; the handful of island states it files under the open ocean are placed by their UN subregion.

Source: World Bank (CC BY 4.0). Figures more than 5 years older than the newest are left out rather than shown beside current ones. Countries sharing a value share a rank. All sources.