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.
| Country | Military Spend (% of GDP, 2024) | Health Spend (% of GDP 2022/23) | Education Spend (% of GDP 2021/22) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇵🇱 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.