As of 2021, the top five per capita spenders are Qatar (~$3955), Israel (~$2770), United States (~$2405), Kuwait (~$2085) and Singapore (~$1885). All five countries have increased their spending since the previous year (2020).
The UAE, for which recent data is not available, has also spent historically large amounts of money on the military on a per capita basis. The UAE had a per capita spending of $2470 per person back in 2014, making it the second highest spender in that year just after Saudi Arabia,[1] but by 2020 that number had fallen to $2204.[2]
Military expenditure per capita spending
SIPRI's estimate of the top 10 countries by per capita military expenditure, US dollars per person (2023).[3]
In the table below, numbers are in USD. "DNE" means the country did not exist at the time or was not independent, and "—" means that the data are unavailable.