Overview
- The UN’s new report, The Security We Need, links a decade of rising defense budgets to faltering progress on the 2030 Agenda, with only about one in five SDG targets on track.
- Global military expenditure climbed across every region in 2024, lifting the military share of world GDP to 2.5% and spending per person to roughly $334, according to SIPRI data cited by the UN.
- A small group of actors — China, India, Russia, the United States and the European Union — accounts for over 70% of outlays, with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza flagged as major drivers of regional increases.
- If current trends persist, the report projects worldwide military spending could reach up to $6.6 trillion by 2035, and it calls for diplomacy first, greater budget transparency and a decisive rebalancing toward development finance.
- The UN contrasts 2024 defense outlays with development needs, noting they equal nearly 13 times total official development assistance and 750 times the UN regular budget, and says the findings will be taken up by leaders at the General Assembly later this month.