Israel and the US Emerge as the World’s Most Militarized Nations in 2025

The Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) assesses a number of countries based on their level of militarization through the Global Peace Index 2025 (GPI).

This militarization domain is one of the three main pillars of the Global Peace Index.

Israel became the most militaristic country in the world in 2025, with a score of 3.917 on a scale of 0-5 points. This score increased by 0.145 points from 2024.

In the overall GPI assessment, Israel was also on of the least peaceful countries, with a score of 3.108-ranking 155th out of 163 countries studied.

Israel's militaristic position was followed by its ally, the United States, with a score of 3.145 points in 2025. This score increased by a slight 0.005 points.

Here are the details of the countries with the highest indicators of militarization in the GPI 2025:

• Israel: 3.917 points
• United States: 3.655 points
• North Korea: 3.577 points
• Ukraine: 3.536 points
• Russia: 3.491 points

Meanwhile, the countries with the lowest levels of militarization globally include:

• Iceland: 1.019 points
• Portugal: 1.274 points
• Malaysia: 1.319 points
• Bhutan: 1.338 points
• Ireland: 1.340 points

According to the IEP, the higher a country's military spending, the more it is considered "deteriorating".

"The average percentage of military spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) is deteriorating globally, as more countries begin to fulfill their promise to increase military spending," the IEP wrote in its report.

The research team said that this year marks the third-largest decline since the GPI was first launched in 2008. In its calculations, there are 84 countries whose military spending has relatively increased in the past year, while 50 countries have seen a decrease.

"Most of these increases were driven by conflicts in Ukraine and Israel-Palestine, with Israel recording the largest decline in this indicator," said the IEP.

In 2024, 24 countries in Western and Central Europe increased their military spending, with several other countries pledging to increase it in the future.

"In other regions, the increase in militarization is mainly concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the score in the militarization domain has deteriorated in 23 out of 44 countries in the region," wrote IEP.

This research on the militarization domain uses a number of indicators, including the percentage of military spending to GDP; the number of military personnel per 100 thousand residents; financial contributions to UN agencies/bodies in the field of peacekeeping/peace missions; imports and exports of major weapons; and heavy/nuclear weapon capabilities.

In addition to the militarization domain, the pillars of the GPI include conflict levels and social security.