What NATO Countries Spend On Military, Health, & Education
NATO countries officially agreed to raise their defense expenditures to 5% of their GDP by 2035.
But how do their military expenditures compare to what they spend on health and education?
This visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, shows a side-by-side comparison of government spending priorities as a percentage of GDP for all NATO members.
Data for this visualization comes from NATO’s public releases, and two World Banks sources: education and health spending.
Figures from the most recent year for each metric is used, listed in the above graphic and in the table in the next section.
Compared: NATO’s Spending on Military Vs. Education and Health
Currently, every NATO country currently spends less on its military than on health or education.
However, the new 5% of GDP target for defense spending is currently higher than what every NATO country currently spends on their military.
| Poland | 4.1 | 7.0 | 4.7 |
| Estonia | 3.4 | 7.0 | 5.3 |
| U.S. | 3.4 | 16.5 | 5.4 |
| Latvia | 3.2 | 7.6 | 4.6 |
| Greece | 3.1 | 8.5 | 4.1 |
| Lithuania | 2.9 | 7.3 | 4.3 |
| Finland | 2.4 | 9.7 | 6.5 |
| Denmark | 2.4 | 9.4 | 5.3 |
| UK | 2.3 | 10.9 | 5.0 |
| Romania | 2.3 | 5.8 | 3.3 |
| North Macedonia | 2.2 | 7.6 | 3.3 |
| Norway | 2.2 | 8.0 | 4.0 |
| Bulgaria | 2.2 | 7.7 | 4.7 |
| Sweden | 2.1 | 10.9 | 7.6 |
| Germany | 2.1 | 11.8 | 4.5 |
| Hungary | 2.1 | 6.4 | 4.7 |
| Czech Republic | 2.1 | 8.5 | 4.8 |
| Türkiye | 2.1 | 3.7 | 2.6 |
| France | 2.1 | 11.9 | 5.4 |
| Netherlands | 2.1 | 10.1 | 5.1 |
| Albania | 2.0 | 6.2 | 2.7 |
| Montenegro | 2.0 | 10.9 | 4.4 |
| Slovakia | 2.0 | 7.7 | 4.8 |
| Croatia | 1.8 | 7.2 | 4.1 |
| Portugal | 1.6 | 10.0 | 4.8 |
| Italy | 1.5 | 8.5 | 4.2 |
| Canada | 1.4 | 11.2 | 4.1 |
| Belgium | 1.3 | 10.8 | 6.4 |
| Luxembourg | 1.3 | 5.8 | 4.7 |
| Slovenia | 1.3 | 9.4 | 5.4 |
| Spain | 1.3 | 9.7 | 4.3 |
| Iceland | 0.0 | 9.0 | 7.1 |
For example, Poland leads NATO in military spending at 4.1% of GDP, driven by concerns over the war in Ukraine.
The U.S. defense budget, despite being close to $1 trillion, is still about 3% of its GDP. This is only a fraction of what it spends on health: 16.5% of its GDP.
For reference, this chart breaks down the U.S. consumer economy, where health care accounted for $3 trillion in American spending in 2023.
While the U.S. is an outlier for its comparative health expenditure, health remains the largest expenditure category for all NATO countries.
However, a 5% defense spending target would push 21 countries into spending more on their militaries than schools.
Has Europe’s Free Defense Ride Ended?
The new 5% target is a dramatic reversal in priorities for many European nations, particularly in Western Europe, where defense has long taken a back seat to public services.
However President Trump’s threats of pulling back U.S. support is now forcing a continent-wide re-militarization, especially in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
To meet the new threshold, governments will need to either raise revenues dramatically or pull funding from other areas.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/16/2025 – 05:45
