The United Nations Secretary-General today released a new report warning of the dangers of rising military spending. The report, ‘The Security We Need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future’, draws extensively on SIPRI data and analysis to highlight the global implications of rising military expenditure.
The report cites SIPRI’s latest figures showing that global military spending reached an unprecedented US$2.7 trillion in 2024, and projects a continued upward trend if current patterns persist. The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database served as a key data source for the report, which also benefited from consultations with SIPRI experts.
The report calls for a fundamental shift in global priorities, emphasizing that excessive military spending undermines progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and poses risks to long-term peace and stability.
About SIPRI’s work on military expenditure
SIPRI collects, analyses, processes and publishes data on military expenditure worldwide. At the heart of the work is SIPRI’s unique, freely available, Military Expenditure Database. The database is updated annually, both with new data for the most recent year and with revisions to past data to take account of new information and ensure consistency over time.
Click here to read more about SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
About the report
Voicing concern over the potential impact that the global increase in military expenditure 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.