The SIPRI National Budget Archive contains primary source documents—as well as, where possible, weblinks to those documents—used for the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, available at the time of data collection. The archive is updated annually (from 2021 data onwards).
SIPRI mainly uses primary sources in the form of official information provided by national governments (e.g. national budget documents published by ministries of finance, budget bills published by national parliaments, budget speeches or press releases) to estimate each country’s military expenditure. The source documents may vary from year to year. For some countries, the source originates from government reporting to multilateral organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The data collection follows SIPRI’s definition of military expenditure.
Some countries may have several source documents for a particular year. This can be because the information used to reach the annual military expenditure estimate is scattered across various documents. For instance, for some countries, information on paramilitary spending may be found under the budget of the interior ministry, while the majority of military activities may fall under the budget of the defence ministry or equivalent.
This archive aims to help to promote and assist global efforts to increase international transparency in military expenditure.
Other government sources on military expenditure include the following: