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HM Treasury · Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2025, chapter 4: expenditure by function

Defence spending as a share of GDP

Year ending March 2025 Final

2.2%percent of GDP

Defence spending as a share of GDP was 2.2% in the year ending March 2025, up 0.1 percentage points from 2.1% in the year ending March 2024.

▲ 4.8% · +0.1% against Year ending March 2024 (previous period)

  1. HM Treasury percentage
  2. Year ending March 2025
  3. published 17 July 2025
  4. Table 4.4
  5. row “2. Defence(2)”
  6. column “2024-25”
  7. cell value 2.2

Year ending March 2003 to Year ending March 2025

Defence spending as a share of GDP: Year ending March 2003 to Year ending March 2025LabourLabourLabourLabourCoalitionCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour0%1%2%20052010201520202025Year ending March 2003: 2.2% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2004: 2.3% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2005: 2.2% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2006: 2.2% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2007: 2.2% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2008: 2.2% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2009: 2.3% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2010: 2.4% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2011: 2.4% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2012: 2.3% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2013: 2.1% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2014: 2% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2015: 2% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2016: 1.9% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2017: 1.8% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2018: 1.8% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2019: 1.9% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2020: 1.9% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2021: 2.1% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2022: 2.1% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2023: 2.1% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2024: 2.1% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025Year ending March 2025: 2.2% percent of GDP · published 17 July 2025
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

Public sector defence spending on the COFOG definition divided by GDP.

What this doesn’t measure

The NATO 2% measure, which uses a different definition.

Important caveat

PESA classifies spending by function using the UN COFOG framework, so "health" is every public body's spending on health services, not the Department of Health's budget, and "defence" follows COFOG rather than the NATO definition. Figures are outturn for the whole public sector including local government and public corporations. Cash figures rise with inflation; the real-terms table restates them at 2024-25 prices with the GDP deflator. Classification changes are footnoted in the table: student loans from 2011-12, Network Rail from 2011-12 and the treatment of EU transactions after 2020. Total managed expenditure includes accounting adjustments that are not allocated to any function.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
HM Treasury
Publication
Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2025, chapter 4: expenditure by function
Release
PESA 2025, published 17 July 2025
Source file
PESA_2025_CP_Chapter_4_tables.xlsx
File SHA-256
bc275bc1efed362ba3ed15fb27db010692caa879d201897dc5d64c46bc942570
Retrieved
3 September 2026
Sheet
4_4
Table
Table 4.4
Row
2. Defence(2)
Column
2024-25
Cell value
2.2
Geography
United Kingdom
Unit
percent of GDP
API
/api/metrics/spend_defence_gdp · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Conservative 2019–20241.9%Year ending March 20192.1%Year ending March 2024↑ 10.5%
Conservative 2017–20191.8%Year ending March 20171.9%Year ending March 2019↑ 5.6%
Conservative 2015–20172%Year ending March 20151.8%Year ending March 2017↓ 10.0%
Coalition 2010–20152.4%Year ending March 20102%Year ending March 2015↓ 16.7%
Labour 2005–20102.2%Year ending March 20052.4%Year ending March 2010↑ 9.1%

Full comparison with chart

Release
PESA 2025 · publication page
Last updated
17 July 2025
Next release expected
Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)