NATO Countries: 2005 Defense Expenditures

Each year, NATO publishes updated figures on its members’ defense expenditures, based on the NATO definition of the term. Data is also provide with respect to key outside entities. The alliance has been doing this since 1963, and expenditures are available in PDF, HTML, or Excel format. Here are the 2005 results; the release notes that:

“Defence expenditures as of 2002 and personnel figures as of 2003 have been calculated on the basis of the revised NATO definition agreed in 2004, which excluded expenditure on Other Forces from the totals reported to NATO, except in the case of those elements of Other Forces which are structured, equipped and trained to support defence forces and which are realistically deployable. Most nations have reported defence expenditures according to this new definition, and in some cases (Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Turkey), this has resulted in a significant apparent decrease in defence expenditures. A few, however (France, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands ), continue to have difficulty meeting this requirement and the data provided by these countries did not fully accord with the new NATO definition on defence expenditures. For the Netherlands, data reflect the 2004 approved defence budget. For the Russian Federation, data was provided based on the previous NATO definition.”