DIO Publications

This annual publication analyses significant trends in defence spending in the Asia-Pacific region. It draws together official defence budgets and national economic data on 28 countries across South-East Asia, the South Pacific, North Asia, South Asia, North America and Europe. It enables comparisons between countries over time and provides a guide to expenditure trends for regional armed forces.

In 2011, a new methodology was adopted to convert nominal official defence expenditure into ‘constant’ current-year terms by using a GDP deflator. While there are some limitations to undertaking expenditure comparisons, our estimates give readers a guide to overall defence spending trends.