Where Nato Members Rank On Defense Spending

President Trump has returned to the White House with a renewed push to make Europe spend more on its collective defense, particularly when it comes to enforcing a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

The Trump administration has called on other NATO allies to increase their defense to 5 percent, a mark that even the U.S. is well below, arguing that European nations have for far too long relied on Washington to bear the cost for security. 

Across Europe, leaders for years have promised to ramp up defense spending, though progress has been slow.

NATO in 2014 set a target that each member dish out 2 percent of its GDP on defense by 2024. At the time of the agreement, only three countries — the U.S., the United Kingdom and Greece — were spending over 2 percent on defense. 

The alliance published an assessment last year that 23 out of the 32 countries in the alliance would surpass the 2 percent threshold on time.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said during an interview at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month that NATO members will have to bump up their defense spending by “considerably more than 3 percent” of their GDP. 

"We have not paid enough over the last 40 years, particularly since the Berlin Wall came down," Rutte said "The U.S. is rightly asking for a rebalancing of that. It's totally logical."

Rutte, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, said the new goalpost could be set in June at the 2025 The Hague summit. 

Poland, which shares borders with the war-torn Ukraine, is the number one NATO defense spender, putting in 4.12 percent, according to NATO’s estimates. Spain is at the bottom of the list, at 1.28 percent.

Estonia, which borders the western part of Russia, allocated 3.43 percent of its GDP, second most among NATO members. That's just ahead of the U.S., which spent 3.38 percent of its GDP on defense, with a 2024 budget over $840 billion. 

Trump's rhetoric around the Ukraine war, blasting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while pursuing talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has jolted Europe and spurred a rethinking of America's role in Europe, which has been largely unchanged since WWII.

Friedrich Merz, the likely next German chancellor, said after Sunday's election his “absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can achieve real independence from the USA, step by step.” 

In 2024, Germany forked over 2.12 of its GDP into NATO, landing at the 15th spot on the list.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday said the country would increase military spending to 2.5 percent of G.D.P. by 2027, ahead of a meeting with Trump on Tuesday.

Here is where NATO members rank on defense spending (as a percentage of GDP):  

Poland: 4.12 percent

Estonia: 3.43 percent 

United States: 3.38 percent

Latvia: 3.15 percent

Greece: 3.08 percent

Lithuania: 2.85 percent

Finland: 2.41 percent

Denmark: 2.37 percent 

United Kingdom: 2.33 percent

Romania: 2.25 percent

North Macedonia: 2.22 percent

Norway: 2.2 percent

Bulgaria: 2.18 percent

Sweden: 2.14 percent

Germany: 2.12 percent

Hungary: 2.11 percent

Czech Republic: 2.1 percent

Turkey: 2.09 percent 

France: 2.06 percent

Netherlands: 2.05 percent

Albania: 2.03 percent 

Montenegro: 2.02 percent

Slovakia: 2 percent

Croatia: 1.81 percent

Portugal: 1.55 percent

Italy: 1.49 percent

Canada: 1.37 percent

Belgium: 1.3 percent 

Luxembourg: 1.29 percent 

Slovenia: 1.29 percent

Spain: 1.28 percent