Top takeaways
- The Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative has launched a real-time NATO Defense Spending Tracker to offer a clearer and fuller picture of how allies are contributing to collective defense and the development of real military capabilities.
- Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European defense spending in aggregate has trended positive. European and Canadian defense spending as a share of GDP has increased from 1.66 percent in 2022 to 2.02 percent in 2024. Twenty-three NATO members now spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense—nearly four times the number (six) that did in 2021.
- Ahead of The Hague Summit, fewer than one third of allies have pledged to spend at least 3.5 percent of GDP on defense. Only Poland is currently at that level.
The bar is going up. In their 2014 Summit in Wales, NATO allies agreed to “aim to move towards” spending 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense within a decade. Now, at the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague in June, members of the Alliance are expected to raise the threshold to 5 percent of GDP, spurred by heightened security threats from actors such as Russia and a renewed press by the Trump administration for greater burden-sharing. Within that 5 percent, 3.5 percent would go to core military capabilities and 1.5 percent to security-related items such as critical infrastructure and cybersecurity.
This tracker breaks down allies’ defense spending through metrics that go beyond share of GDP—from amounts spent on military equipment to support for Ukraine.
Since Russia’s renewed invasion of Ukraine—and with momentum building following Trump’s return to the White House—NATO allies have pledged major increases in defense spending, each on their own timeline. This chart breaks down these pledged commitments by country to track what the future trajectory of allied defense spending might look like.
Measures of burden-sharing are not confined to defense spending as a percentage of GDP. When you look at the picture from a per capita perspective, the Nordic nations—Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden—stand out, leading Europe in defense spending per citizen.
When it comes to total defense spending, the United States is the clear leader—investing nearly twice as much as all allies across Europe and Canada combined. However, as a great power with worldwide interests and the capability to project force far beyond Europe, the United States’ defense spending extends beyond the Euro-Atlantic theater. As a result, this apparent imbalance does not fully capture the nuances of burden-sharing within NATO.
While total defense spending matters, how that money is spent is arguably even more critical. Some allies, like Greece, have faced criticism for counting military pensions in their defense budgets, which boosts their defense spending as a percentage of GDP without necessarily enhancing NATO’s operational capabilities. Other countries, like Denmark, argue that their spending figures overlook substantial personnel contributions to NATO missions such as the mission in Afghanistan. To provide a clearer picture, this chart breaks down how allies allocate their defense budgets by category.
With allies expected to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, defense spending totals could shift drastically in the coming years. This chart allows experts and military planners alike to calculate how these contributions can be best used to procure much-needed capabilities. While investments in infrastructure, personnel, and other contributions are vital defense-enablers, the larger conversation occurring in European circles centers on fielding actual capabilities in the short term. Total defense spending on equipment reflects the amount of funding that brings to bear these capabilities.
Trump often claims that the United States has provided far more military, humanitarian, and financial support to Ukraine than Europe has. However, the data tells a different story. This chart shows bilateral aid allocated (not just pledged), revealing that total support from Europe and Canada is roughly on par with support from the United States.
On a per capita basis, several European allies far surpass the United States when it comes to providing aid to Ukraine. Nordic and eastern-flank allies lead the way, with Denmark at the front of the pack. The data highlights that European nations are already shouldering much of the financial burden of supporting Ukraine.
Acknowledgements
Authors: Kristen Taylor and Zak Schneider
The research team would like to thank Uri Friedman, Michael Currie, and Daniel Malloy for their contributions to this project.
Related content
Explore the program
The Transatlantic Security Initiative, in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, shapes and influences the debate on the greatest security challenges facing the North Atlantic Alliance and its key partners.