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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland is NATO’s biggest relative spender on defence, new data from the alliance confirm. In addition, Warsaw devotes well over half of its defence budget to equipment, which is also the highest figure in NATO.
NATO estimates that Poland will spend the equivalent of 4.5% of GDP on defence this year, up from 3.8% in 2024 and 2.2% a decade ago. Warsaw has dramatically ramped up its outlay since Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022.
The next highest relative defence spenders in NATO this year are the Baltic trio of Lithuania (4%), Latvia (3.7%) and Estonia (3.4%), all of whom also have Russia on their doorstep. Among the largest NATO members, the US is spending 3.2% of GDP on defence, Turkey 2.3%, the UK 2.4%, and France 2.1%.
A 2025 figure is not yet available for Germany. But Berlin last year raised defence spending to meet the alliance’s target of 2% of GDP for the first time. Indeed, this year is the first time that all 32 NATO members will meet the target.
In terms of absolute, rather than relative, spending, Poland has NATO’s sixth-largest defence budget this year, at around $44.3 billion. The biggest spenders are the US ($980 billion), the UK ($90.5 billion), France ($66.5 billion) and Italy ($48.8 billion).
Once Germany’s 2025 figure is confirmed, it will also be larger than Poland’s. In 2024, Berlin spent $93.7 billion to defence.
NATO’s new figures also show that, in 2025, Poland is devoting 54.4% of its defence budget to equipment. That is the highest figure in the alliance, ahead of Luxembourg (53.4%), Finland (46%) and Lithuania (45.8%).
Poland has in recent years sought to rapidly expand and modernise its armed forces, spending billions on new tanks, aircraft, howitzers and air defence systems, among other equipment. The majority of the purchases have been from the US and South Korea.
Last month, Warsaw signed a $6.7 billion agreement with South Korea for a further 180 K2 tanks. Once the order is complete, Poland will operate around 1,100 tanks, which is more than Germany, France, the UK and Italy combined.
Poland’s defence spending spree is likely to continue in the coming years. Last month, the government presented a draft budget for 2026 that will see defence spending rise further, to around 4.8% of GDP.
Poland has signed a $6.7bn deal to buy a further 180 South Korean K2 tanks, including 61 that will be made in Poland itself.
Once delivery is complete by 2030, Poland will have more tanks than Germany, France, the UK and Italy combined https://t.co/Cw17lGKPSC
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 1, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Bartosz Bera/MON (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
