Where Data Tells the Story
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According to new data released today, all NATO members are expected to reach the alliance's 2-percent goal this year. Spending 2 percent of GDP on the military is a benchmark that NATO set for itself in 2014, but which was not reached by many members for years. Now, countries have upped spending as fear of new wars persisted and doubts about the U.S. continuing its global projection of military power under re-elected President Donald Trump rose. As of June 2025, all 31 NATO members with armed forces were projected to reach the goal that year, up from just 10 out of 30 in 2023. Sweden and Finland are two new members which joined the military alliance in 2023 and 2024 and upped their military spending above 2 percent of GDP on the occassion.
While the definition as agreed upon during NATO's Wales summit 11 years ago is vague, the 2-percent target has nevertheless been considered a hallmark of NATO's success as well as a point of contention within the organization and in public discourse. The data also shows that the U.S. continues to be the largest spender in the organization, allocating more to the military than all other members combined (the equivalent of 3.2 percent of GDP), while non-U.S. military spending grew more over the past decade, now reaching 2.5 percent of GDP on average.
Former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last year that the organization is currently undergoing “the biggest overhaul of collective defense and deterrence since the Cold War” after the organization has emerged as the chief supporter of Ukraine in its defense effort against a Russian invasion. But even before war on the European continent became a reality again in 2022, tensions had been running high about the state of NATO's military infrastructure as most European nations had adopted a lackluster approach to defense spending in peace times. U.S. President Trump in 2018 had already brought the issue to the forefront as he criticized a number of NATO member states, especially Germany, for not making enough of an effort to meet the 2-percent-of-GDP spending threshold. While 2025 figures for Germany still lack in NATO's reporting, the country is majorly overhauling its military spending and reached the 2-percent goal in 2024.