Arms exports (SIPRI trend indicator values) - Country Ranking - Europe

Definition: Arms transfers cover the supply of military weapons through sales, aid, gifts, and those made through manufacturing licenses. Data cover major conventional weapons such as aircraft, armored vehicles, artillery, radar systems, missiles, and ships designed for military use. Excluded are transfers of other military equipment such as small arms and light weapons, trucks, small artillery, ammunition, support equipment, technology transfers, and other services. Figures are SIPRI Trend Indicator Values (TIVs) expressed in US$ m. at constant (1990) prices. A '0' indicates that the value of deliveries is less than US$0.5m

Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Arms Transfers Programme (http://portal.sipri.org/publications/pages/transfer/splash).

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 France 1,995,000,000.00 2020
2 Germany 1,232,000,000.00 2020
3 Spain 1,201,000,000.00 2020
4 Italy 806,000,000.00 2020
5 Netherlands 488,000,000.00 2020
6 United Kingdom 429,000,000.00 2020
7 Sweden 286,000,000.00 2020
8 Romania 216,000,000.00 2013
9 Czech Republic 213,000,000.00 1992
10 Switzerland 179,000,000.00 2020
11 Turkey 141,000,000.00 2020
12 Ukraine 115,000,000.00 2020
13 Norway 72,000,000.00 2020
14 Lithuania 60,000,000.00 2018
15 Belgium 53,000,000.00 2020
16 Portugal 46,000,000.00 2020
17 Hungary 41,000,000.00 2013
18 Cyprus 36,000,000.00 1996
19 Serbia 33,000,000.00 2020
20 Belarus 23,000,000.00 2020
21 Greece 17,000,000.00 2020
22 Ireland 14,000,000.00 2014
23 Poland 13,000,000.00 2020
24 Finland 12,000,000.00 2020
25 Moldova 11,000,000.00 2011
26 Bulgaria 10,000,000.00 2019
27 Austria 9,000,000.00 2020
27 Latvia 9,000,000.00 1994
29 Malta 5,000,000.00 2015
29 Iceland 5,000,000.00 1993
31 Denmark 4,000,000.00 2019
32 Croatia 3,000,000.00 2017
32 Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,000,000.00 2013
34 Slovak Republic 1,000,000.00 2019
35 Slovenia 0.00 2016
35 Luxembourg 0.00 2007
35 Montenegro 0.00 2017
35 Albania 0.00 2011
35 Estonia 0.00 2015

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Development Relevance: Although national defense is an important function of government and security from external threats that contributes to economic development, high military expenditures for defense or civil conflicts burden the economy and may impede growth. Data on military expenditures are a rough indicator of the portion of national resources used for military activities and of the burden on the economy. Comparisons of military spending among countries should take into account the many factors that influence perceptions of vulnerability and risk, including historical and cultural traditions, the length of borders that need defending, the quality of relations with neighbors, and the role of the armed forces in the body politic.

Limitations and Exceptions: SIPRI calculates the volume of transfers to, from and between all parties using the TIV and the number of weapon systems or subsystems delivered in a given year. This data is intended to provide a common unit to allow the measurement if trends in the flow of arms to particular countries and regions over time. Therefore, the main priority is to ensure that the TIV system remains consistent over time, and that any changes introduced are backdated. SIPRI TIV figures do not represent sales prices for arms transfers. They should therefore not be directly compared with gross domestic product (GDP), military expenditure, sales values or the financial value of export licences in an attempt to measure the economic burden of arms imports or the economic benefits of exports. They are best used as the raw data for calculating trends in international arms transfers over periods of time, global percentages for suppliers and recipients, and percentages for the volume of transfers to or from particular states.

Original Source Notes: SIPRI statistical data on arms transfers relates to actual deliveries of major conventional weapons. To permit comparison between the data on such deliveries of different weapons and to identify general trends, SIPRI has developed a unique system to measu

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)'s Arms Transfers Program collects data on arms transfers from open sources. Since publicly available information is inadequate for tracking all weapons and other military equipment, SIPRI covers only what it terms major conventional weapons. Data cover the supply of weapons through sales, aid, gifts, and manufacturing licenses; therefore the term arms transfers rather than arms trade is used. SIPRI data also cover weapons supplied to or from rebel forces in an armed conflict as well as arms deliveries for which neither the supplier nor the recipient can be identified with acceptable certainty; these data are available in SIPRI's database. Data cover major conventional weapons such as aircraft, armored vehicles, artillery, radar systems and other sensors, missiles, and ships designed for military use as well as some major components such as turrets for armored vehicles and engines. Excluded are other military equipment such as most small arms and light weapons, trucks, small artillery, ammunition, support equipment, technology transfers, and other services.

Aggregation method: Sum

Base Period: 1990

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Data for some countries are based on partial or uncertain data or rough estimates.