Data

Worldwide spending to reduce poverty vs. the US Defense budget

* Billions per year

Most people in industrialized countries believe that we spend a great deal of money to address extreme poverty worldwide. Proportionally, we don’t.

For example, since the beginning of the Millenium Development Goals, the United States’ defense budget has been between four and five times greater than the total amount that the entire industrialized world spends to reduce extreme poverty worldwide. Citizens of rich countries often assume that 10, 20, or even 30 percent of their national budgets goes to foreign assistance. In 2023, in the United States, it was less than one percent.

In 2026, the United States will spend $1.01 trillion on defense. The entire world will likely spend less than $150 billion to reduce extreme poverty and the hunger, sickness, loss of freedom, and collapse of opportunity that it engenders.