Statizoid

China vs United States: Military spending

China
349.48 billion constant 2022 US$
in 2023
United States
1.06 trillion constant 2022 US$
in 2023
China rank
2nd
United States rank
1st

Military spending over time

  • China
  • United States
0250.0B500.0B750.0B1.0T1.2T181619192023

How they compare

United States currently reports 1.06 trillion constant 2022 US$ against 349.48 billion constant 2022 US$ in China, a difference of 715.47 billion constant 2022 US$.

That makes United States's figure about 3.0 times China's.

Across all 164 years both countries report, United States has been ahead every year.

China ranks 2nd and United States ranks 1st of 172 countries.

Individual pages

About this data

Indicator
Military spending
Unit
constant 2022 US$
Source
Barnum et al. - Global Military Spending Dataset (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
172 places, 15,402 data points, 1816–2023
Last refreshed

This data is expressed in US dollars. It is adjusted for inflation but does not account for differences in the cost of living between countries.