The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database



Military expenditure data provides an easily identifiable measure of the scale of resources absorbed by military activities. Military expenditure is an input measure. As such it is not directly related to the output of military activities, such as military capability.

SIPRI military expenditure data are entirely based on open sources, and as much as possible on official data.

The SIPRI definition of military expenditure is used as a guideline in the compilation of SIPRI data but is not always possible to apply. If another definition is used, it is applied over the entire country time-series in order to achieve consistency over time.

Military expenditure data from different volumes of the SIPRI Yearbook should not be combined because of data revision between volumes. Revision can be significant; e.g., when a better time series becomes available, the entire SIPRI series is revised accordingly. When data are available in local currency but not in constant US$ or as a share of GDP, this is due to lack of economic data. Revisions in constant dollar series can also originate in significant revisions in the economic statistics of IMF that are used for these calculations.

Contributions of military expenditure data, estimates and advice are gratefully acknowledged from the SIPRI Military expenditure network.


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