“World Peace” is a utopia that would continue for a long time, as long as 2.65% of Global Domestic Product is spent on military and defense (meaning here billions of dollars spent for weapons for troop’s salaries, investments, etc…) However, it is noted that this indicator is decreasing since the “Cold War”.


Source: World Bank (WB)
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA)

 
In 1989, the Russian Federation was the country in the world that spends more on defense. 23.3% of its GDP is used for military, weapons, etc, a figure that is 4.5 times higher than that of the United States. This indicator was high even in the countries with high or medium incomes, round of 6% of GDP.
 
The developments of the ’80 make the tension in the all over the world to descend; reflected in the lower figures of funds spending in defense as percentage of GDP. Generally, by the year 2000, the trend was downward. World average dropped from 3.94% in 1989 to 2.26% in 2000. It is very interesting that the Arab countries have continuously spent most of their GDP on defense.
 
After 2001, the United States have increased funding spent for defense; while Russia appears to have decreased the level of these funds, followed by Arab countries, despite the fact that the latter lead the classification. In 2008 this indicator had a strong turnaround for all countries. Downward trend already ceased and there is an increase of the percentage of GDP that has begun to be spent on defense, including the European Union countries.

All the data is presented in the table below:


Source: World Bank (WB)
Comments and Analysis: Open Data Albania (ODA)