Do we spend more on defense or healthcare

and education – a data visualization

www.datamustard.com
More than 300 million people have died in
wars in the modern era
Of that, more than 150 million people have died in battles
in the 20th century alone and about 5.5 million people
have died in the first two decades of the new millennium.

The United States is the top defense spender in the

world, spending $649 billion in 2018.

Sales of arms by the world’s top 100 largest arms-

producing and military services companies totalled $398.2
billion in 2017

www.datamustard.com
Military spending in 2018 increased 2.6%
compared to 2017
Total global spending on defense in 2018 was
$1.8 trillion

Excluding the countries ranked #2 - #7, the

United States alone spent more than all the
remaining countries in the world combined

USA and China accounted for close to half of the

total defense spending in 2018

www.datamustard.com
How does military spending compare to
health care spending?

www.datamustard.com
Most developed nations spent more on health
care compared to defense
Saudi Arabia, India and Russia were the three
nations in the top 15 who spent more on defense
compared to health care

Japan, France, UK, Germany and Canada spent

much more on healthcare than defense while
China and South Korea spent slightly more

Brazil, India and USA had more private sector

expenditure on healthcare compared to
government spending

www.datamustard.com
Top 15 nations who spent the most on
defense in terms of % of GDP
Most of the nations on this list spend way more on
military than on health care

Jordan and Namibia are two nations who spend

slightly more on healthcare. Israel, Algeria and
Congo spent slightly more on defense

Most of these 15 nations are in the middle east

and North Africa where most of the world's most
troubled regions are located

www.datamustard.com
How does military spending compare to
education spending?

www.datamustard.com
Most developed nations spent more on
education compared to defense
Healthcare spending is more than education
spending for most of these nations

South Korea, Brazil and Turkey spent more

on education compared to healthcare

(Note: Education data was available for only

10 out of the 15 nations we looked at earlier)

www.datamustard.com
Nations who spent the most on defense in
terms of % of GDP
For the 6 nations for which education data
was available, most spent more on defense

Israel, South Sudan and Azerbaizan spent

more on education

Congo, Bahrain and Namibia spent more on

healthcare than on education

www.datamustard.com
Data Sources

• Wikipedia articles
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
• World Bank data
• https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS
• https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS
• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
• https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2018/global-arms-industry-us-companies-
dominate-top-100-russian-arms-industry-moves-second-place
• Note – we looked at 2014 data as that was the year when both military and
healthcare data was available.

www.datamustard.com
About DataMustard.com

• We like to look at interesting stories through data. Visualizing data is

our passion. Please sign up to receive many such stories delivered
right into your mailbox. If you would like to get charts created for
some data, we would like to give you a hand.
• To read the complete article, go to
https://datamustard.com/military-spending-vs-healthcare-and-
education-spending-a-data-visualization/