EDA has compared the 2011 defence expenditure of its participating Member States with that of the United States for the same year. The data show that the US spent €503 billion on defence in 2011 compared to €193 billion spent in the EU: around 2,5 times more.
In 2011, the governments of the 26 EDA pMS spent a total of €193 billion on defence. The US spent the equivalent of €503 billion (or $699 billion). Between 2006 and 2008 the aggregated defence expenditure of the 26 EDA pMS has been about half that of the US. During the years 2009-2011 this difference increased. While the EU aggregated defence expenditure decreased from €201 billion in 2008 to €193 billion in 2011, US expenditure increased from €416 billion ($612 billion) to €503 billion in the same period. Comparing defence spending with other macroeconomic data, in 2011 US defence expenditure represented 4.7% of GDP and 11.2% of overall government expenditure. In the EU these ratios were, respectively, 1.6% and 3.2%. As for defence expenditure in relation to the total population, the US spent €1 610 ($2 242) per capita in 2011, while the EU spent on average €387.
The EU data represent spending of 26 EDA participating Member States (all EU Member States except Denmark and Croatia which joined the EU on 1 July 2013). The US data are based on public sources, mainly US Government publications. Data on GDP, General Government Expenditure, Population and Euro/US Dollar exchange rates were collected from Eurostat.
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