Military spending worldwide hits record $2.7 trillion

By R Anil Kumar

New York, September 10, 2025. Following a decade-long military build-up, global military spending hit a record high in 2024, soaring by more than nine per cent from 2023 and signalling a dangerous move away from the principles of the UN Charter.

Amid an era of geopolitical tension and distrust fuelling unprecedented death and destruction around the world, the UN Secretary-General’s report, The Security We Need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future, urges UN Member States to recalibrate security and development priorities.

Global military spending reached an unprecedented $2.7 trillion in 2024 amid intensifying wars and rising geopolitical tensions worldwide.

“The world is spending far more on waging war than in building peace,” the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at a press briefing for his new report on the threat posed by the steady rise in military expenditure.

Spending on security needs increased across all five global regions during 2024, marking the steepest year-on-year rise for at least the last three decades. Compared to the $2.7 trillion directed to military budgets, the world could eliminate extreme poverty for just under $300 billion.

“A more secure world begins by investing at least as much in fighting poverty as we do in fighting wars,” said Mr. Guterres.

Investing in our shared future

“We are in a world where fissures are deepening, official development assistance is falling, and human development progress is slowing,” adds the Acting Administrator of the UN Development Programme, Haoliang Xu.

“But we know that development is a driver of security and multilateral development cooperation works.

When people’s lives improve, when they have access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities and when they can live lives of dignity and self-determination, we will have more peaceful societies and a more peaceful world.”

The report calls for a fundamental recalibration of global security and development strategies, prioritizing diplomacy and international cooperation to reverse the current trend of escalating military spending. It makes a clarion call for investing in sustainable development because even a small fraction of military spending can make a big difference in people’s lives.

Less than four per cent (or $93 billion) of $2.7 trillion is needed annually to end hunger by 2030. A little over 10 per cent ($285 billion) can fully vaccinate every child. With $5 trillion, the world could fund 12 years of quality education of every child in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Moreover, while military spending generates jobs, other civil sectors can generally create more jobs with the same resources—$1 billion in military spending can create approximately 11,200 jobs in the military but it can create 26,700 in education, 16,800 in clean energy and 17,200 in health care.

Reinvesting 15 per cent or $387 billion of the global military spending is more than enough to cover the annual costs of climate change adaptation in developing countries. It would also reduce emissions intensity: by some estimates, each dollar spent on the military generates over twice the greenhouse gas emissions of a dollar invested in civilian sectors.

A choice between aid or arms

The alarming amount spent on arms-related costs last year alone is 750 times the 2024 UN regular budget. It also equates to almost 13 times the development assistance provided by the OECD’s development assistance committee in 2024, indicating a stark trade-off between military expenditure and sustainable development.

“Redirecting even a fraction of today’s military spending could close vital gaps – putting children in school, strengthening primary health care, expanding clean energy and resilient infrastructure, and protecting the most vulnerable,” said Mr. Guterres.

For a small portion of what was invested in militaries this past year – and the previous decade – the world could fund education for every student in low and lower middle-income countries, eliminate child malnutrition globally, fund climate change adaptation in the developing world, and bring the international community closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN estimates.

“Rebalancing global priorities is not optional – it is an imperative for humanity’s survival,” said the UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu at the press briefing.

‘Sustainable development is in jeopardy’

With only one of the five of the SDGs on track, Mr. Guterres stressed that “our shared promise of sustainable development is in jeopardy.”

While more is being spent on militaries, less is being spent for social investment, poverty reduction, education, health, environmental protection and infrastructure – hindering progress on nearly all the SDGs and undermining the UN Charter, the UN’s cornerstone document.

“But we know that development is a driver of security and multilateral development cooperation works,” said UN Development Programme (UNDP) deputy chief Haoliang Xu.

“When people’s lives improve, when they have access to education, healthcare, economic opportunities and when they can live lives of dignity and self-determination, we will have more peaceful societies and a more peaceful world.”

A new security approach

“Investing in people is investing in the first line of defense against violence in any society,” said Mr. Guterres.

The report calls for a more human-centered and multidimensional approach that priorities diplomacy, international cooperation, and paves the way for sustainable development.

In a vicious cycle, lack of economic opportunity, poverty, and underdevelopment breeds instability – fuelling violence and a rise in State expenditure on the military, the UN report contends.

Investing in development and sustainable security has the potential to stop today’s arms race and alleviate the need for military spending.

“The evidence is clear: excessive military spending does not guarantee peace,” said Mr. Guterres. “It often undermines it – fuelling arms races, deepening mistrust, and diverting resources from the very foundations of stability.”

About the Report

Voicing concern over the potential impact that the global increase in military expenditures could have on investments in sustainable development and peace, UN Member States requested the Secretary-General to analyse the impact of the global increase in military expenditure on the achievement of the SDGs as one of the key outcomes of the Summit of the Future as laid out in the Pact for the Future.

The Secretary-General’s report benefited from broad inputs and consultations with UN Member States, specialized UN entities, research institutions, civil society organizations and other stakeholders.

About the UN Charter

The report points out that rising military spending runs counter to the very objectives, principles and purposes of the United Nations, namely, to resolve conflicts peacefully and without recourse to arms and through the non-use of force.

Reducing military spending is one of the most direct and concrete disarmament objectives embedded in the UN Charter. Article 26 instructs the UN Security Council to promote and maintain international peace and security “with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources.”