India, in 2024, spent nine times more money on military expenditure than Pakistan, reveals a study released on Monday by a leading Swedish think-tank that comes amid growing tensions between the two Asian nations over the Pahalgam terror attack in J&K, which took the lives of 26 civilians.
India's military expenditure, the fifth largest globally, grew by 1.6 per cent to USD 86.1 billion while Pakistan spent USD 10.2 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Meanwhile, India's defence budget for 2025-26 is ₹6,81,210 crore, while Pakistan's defence budget for the current year is reportedly ₹2,28,100 crore (equivalent to ₹2,281 billion).
In terms of military ranking according to the Global Firepower Index, India is placed fourth while Pakistan is at twelfth place. India is also among the top five military spenders, which includes -- the United States, China, Russia, and Germany.
India has the highest combat aircraft fleet strength with 2,229 planes whereas Islamabad has 1,399 planes.
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The SIPRI further said military spending in Europe (including Russia) rose by 17 per cent to USD 693 billion and was the main contributor to the global increase in 2024.
With the war in Ukraine in its third year, military expenditure kept rising across the continent, pushing European military spending beyond the level recorded at the end of the Cold War, it noted.
The SIPRI said Russia's military expenditure reached an estimated USD 149 billion in 2024, a 38 per cent increase from 2023 and double the level in 2015.
This represented 7.1 per cent of Russia's GDP and 19 per cent of all Russian government spending. Ukraine's total military expenditure grew by 2.9 per cent to reach USD 64.7 billion -- equivalent to 43 per cent of Russia's spending.
"Russia once again significantly increased its military spending, widening the spending gap with Ukraine," said Diego Lopes da Silva, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, further adding, "Ukraine currently allocates all of its tax revenues to its military. In such a tight fiscal space, it will be challenging for Ukraine to keep increasing its military spending."
Several nations in central and western Europe saw unprecedented rises in their military expenditure in 2024 as they implemented new spending pledges and large-scale procurement plans, SIPRI said.
It said Germany's military expenditure increased by 28 per cent to reach USD 88.5 billion, making it the biggest spender in central and western Europe and the fourth biggest in the world. Poland's military spending grew by 31 per cent to USD 38.0 billion in 2024, representing 4.2 per cent of Poland's GDP, according to SIPRI.
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