Defence Spending in Europe Surpasses Cold War Levels as Military Expenditure Hits All-Time High of $2.24tn, Finds Sipri Report

In 2022, defence spending in western and central Europe surpassed the last year of the cold war and hit an all-time high of $2.24tn, according to the Stockholm International Peace Institute (Sipri). The outbreak of war in Ukraine triggered the steepest increase in military expenditure in Europe in three decades. Spending by central and western European states reached $345bn in 2022, a sum that in real terms surpasses that of 1989, the last year of the cold war. Germany’s military budget was the seventh largest in the world last year behind the US, China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and the UK, and further huge increases in expenditure are planned.