Military spending in South Korea

• The highest was 8.33% of GDP in 1956, the lowest 2.17% of GDP in 2004.

• What the country spends on its armed forces and defence, as a share of its economy, by SIPRI’s count.
• Source: Information from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military Expenditure Database, https://doi.org/10.55163/CQGC9685.
• Marked points are SIPRI’s own: a dot where it gives the figure as its estimate, a ring where it calls the figure highly uncertain.
• Ranks count the 151 countries with a value in 2025, highest first.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Countries through time