Defence: Member States' Spending

Briefing 31-05-2018

In 2016, the amount of expenditure dedicated to defence represented 1.3% of GDP for the EU-28 and 1.2% of GDP for the Euro area. This is much less than the amount spent on social protection (which is equivalent to 19.1% of GDP), Health (7.1%) or Education (4.7%) but not quite as much as the amount spent on Public Safety and Order (1.7% of GDP) and significantly higher that the amount spent on environmental protection (0.7% of GDP). In 2016, the highest levels of expenditure in defence in the EU were observed in Estonia (2.4% of GDP), followed by Greece (2.1% of GDP), the United-Kingdom (2.0% of GDP) and France (1.8% of GDP). As a share of total government expenditure, defence expenditure amounted to 2.9% in the EU and to 2.6% in the Euro area.