Last night I was trying to find a correlation between the amount of military spending and resentment towards a country with large military expenditures. So I consulted the 2006 CIA World Factbook to see if I could find anything. The current Middle East conflict provoked my thoughts, and you will notice the United States and Israel top the charts on military spending on a per citizen basis.
To get a broad world perspective, I used a sample of 12 countries throughout the world. North Korea, Iran, United States, Canada, Netherlands, Israel, Lebanon, China, India, United Kingdom, Australia and Japan
Military expenditures dollar figure and population (July 2006 est.):
1. United States: 518.1 billion (2005 est.) – Population: 298,444,215
2. China: 81.48 billion (2005 est.) – Population: 1,313,973,713
3. Japan: 44.31 billion (2005 est.) – Population: 127,463,611
4. United Kingdom: 42.8 billion (2003) – Population: 60,609,153
5. India: 19.04 billion (2005 est.) – Population: 1,095,351,995
6. Australia: 17.84 billion (2005 est.) – Population: 20,264,082
7. Canada: 9.8 billion (2003) – Population: 33,098,932
8. Israel: 9.45 billion (2005 est.) – Population: 6,352,117
9. Netherlands: 9.408 billion (2004) – Population: 16,491,461
10. North Korea: 5 billion (FY02) – Population: 23,113,019
11. Iran: 4.3 billion (2003 est.) – Population: 68,688,433
12. Lebanon: 540.6 million (2004) – Population: 3,874,050
Approx. cost per year of military expenditures per citizen
1. United States: $1,738/person/year
2. Israel: $1,575
3. Australia: $880
4. United Kingdom: $706
5. Netherlands: $570
6. Japan: $347
7. Canada: $296
8. North Korea: $216
9. Lebanon: $142
10. Iran: $62
11. China: $62
12. India: $17
Military expenditures as percent of GDP
1. Isreal: 7.7% of GDP
2. China: 4.3%
3. United States: 4.06%
4. Iran: 3.3%
5. Lebanon: 3.1%
6. Australia: 2.7%
7. India: 2.5%
8. United Kingdom: 2.4%
9. Netherlands: 1.6%
10. Canada: 1.1%
11. Japan: 1%
12. North Korea (N/A)
Staggering figures. Imagine what we could be capable of in the absense of our obsession to “blow shit up.”