Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The world's biggest military spenders by population

This chart is from The Economist, and it is interesting to see who is on list and who is not. I was surprised to see such high spending from northern Europe.

3 comments:

Holly Ann Garnett said...

Why do you think this is (that N. Europe has high defense spending per capita)? Is it perhaps because of their small populations, so basic spending is spread between fewer people? Or is it a remnant of the Cold War in some way?

Steve Muhlberger said...

Just a guess, but maybe there has been pressure/opportunity from NATO to buy really expensive air power -- and the ability to pay for it.

Anonymous said...

The recent completion of the Eurofighter programme, forcing its participants to actually buy the beasts in multiple, probably has something to do with it, yes, but Norway, very high on the list, didn't do so. I wonder if, in Norway's case, it's more that their population is very small compared to the armed forces they maintain?