UK defence spending: explained

In June 2025 the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed that the UK is to spend 5% of its GDP on national security from 2035.

This commitment has been matched by 31 of the 32 NATO allies (Spain received an exemption after refusing to commit to the target) and will be split between core defence spending (at least 3.5%) and investment in “resilience and security” (1.5%) to protect critical infrastructure.

This represents a substantial increase on the previous NATO target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence, which has been in place since 2006. The new target was agreed despite several NATO countries having previously failed to reach the 2% target, including Italy, Canada and Spain.

The UK government was already exceeding the NATO target. UK defence spending is estimated to have been 2.4% in 2025, according to NATO, up from an estimated 2.3% in 2024. In February 2025 the government committed to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence from April 2027, with the aim of reaching 3% of GDP by the end of this Parliament (2029).

Below we take a closer look at what the UK currently spends on defence, how that compares historically and with other countries, and how what we spend is set to change.

This explainer is one of a series Full Fact has published exploring a range of key political topics. We’ll be updating these articles on a regular basis. This article was last updated on 15 January 2026 and the information in it is correct as of then.

How much does the UK currently spend on defence? 

In 2024/25, the most recently completed financial year, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) spent £60.2 billion, up from £53.9 billion in 2023/24.

When comparing the UK’s defence spending with other countries, a more common measure is ‘NATO-qualified defence expenditure’, which includes some other spending outside the MOD’s budget, such as armed forces pensions.

Figures published by the previous Conservative government in April 2024 forecast the UK’s NATO-qualified defence expenditure would be £64.6 billion in 2024/25 (expected to amount to 2.32% of GDP, up from 2.28% in 2023/24).

In February 2025, however, the current government told Full Fact that qualified defence spending for 2024/25 would be £66.3 billion. We’ve not found this figure on the government’s website, but it has been reported elsewhere. We asked the MOD for an update in January 2026.

NATO’s estimate puts the UK’s qualifying defence spending at £65.8 billion for the 2025 calendar year—2.4% of GDP.

The UK’s defence spending plans

The previous Conservative government had committed to reaching 2.5% by 2030. However, Labour has now said it will happen from April 2027.

This increase in spending will be funded by reducing the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget from 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI) to 0.3%. The government told us this would provide £6.1 billion in funding for defence, and defence spending in 2027/28 would rise to £79.7 billion.

Mr Starmer said the UK would spend “£13.4 billion more on defence every year from 2027”. This figure was widely challenged however— the Institute for Fiscal Studies described it as “misleadingly large”. As Mr Starmer later clarified, the £13.4 billion figure referred to the increase in defence spending in 2027/28 compared to its current level, not compared to what it might otherwise have been that year had defence spending remained at 2.3% of GDP.

Labour’s plans were confirmed in the June 2025 Spending Review, which said total defence spending would rise to 2.6% of GDP from April 2027, including an increased “share of intelligence spending that is spent as NATO qualifying defence expenditure.”

Once spending on resilience is factored in alongside core defence, the government expects overall spending on national security to reach at least 4.1% of GDP in 2027.

What counts as defence spending?

Definitions of government defence spending can vary country by country, so NATO has its own definition—also referred to as ‘NATO-qualifying spend’.

In simple terms, NATO describes ‘defence expenditure’ as “payments made by a national government (excluding regional, local and municipal authorities) specifically to meet the needs of its armed forces, those of Allies or of the Alliance”.

Included within NATO’s definition are retirement pensions made directly by governments to retired military employees, the cost of stockpiling war reserves of equipment or supplies for use directly by armed forces, and certain research and development costs.

Some costs included within NATO’s definition currently sit outside the UK’s MOD budget, such as armed forces pensions and the Integrated Security Fund.

How does UK defence spending compare to other countries?

As a proportion of GDP, UK defence spending fell sharply during the 1980s and 1990s, and has fallen much less since.

There have been some small fluctuations in these trends, which appear to correlate with geopolitical developments and subsequent demands, such as a rise in the early 1990s due to the Gulf War.

The UK’s defence spending as a percentage of GDP ranked 12th out of 31 NATO member states for which 2025 estimates are available.

For the first time in recent years, all NATO countries were expected to meet or exceed the existing 2% spending commitment in 2025. Only the UK, USA and Greece have consistently met the target since 2014, and the UK has met it since its introduction in 2006 (with a few changes to the definition of defence spending along the way).

NATO countries combined accounted for over half of the world’s military spending in 2024, according to estimates from the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The bulk of this came from the US, which has military commitments all over the world, some of which are not related to NATO.

Overall, the US spent $997 billion on military expenditure in 2024, according to the SIPRI definition, the highest amount of any country. It was followed by China, Russia, Germany and India . The UK was the sixth highest spender.

In 2024, military spending increased in all five geographical regions—Africa, Americas, Asia and Oceania, Europe and the Middle East—for the second year in a row. Prior to 2023 this had not happened since 2009.

SIPRI cites increased European spending due to the war in Ukraine, following Russia’s invasion in 2022, as one of the main drivers of these increases, alongside increased spending in the Middle East “driven by the war in Gaza and wider regional conflicts”.

How is NATO itself funded?

NATO’s budget for 2025 is around €4.6 billion, up from €3.8 billion in 2024.

NATO uses common funding, by which members contribute to a pool of collective resources. This money is then used to pay for things such as NATO headquarters, missions and operations conducted worldwide, air and naval basing facilities, satellite communications and control systems.

The amount countries contribute depends on their Gross National Income (GNI). The US and Germany are the biggest contributors to this common funding, at about 16%, followed by the UK at 11%.