This website hosts data on military purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates, and measures of real military spending across countries. The data are estimates and provided for public interest, research, and transparency monitoring purposes. The site is created and maintained by Peter Robertson at the University of Western Australia.

Please see the Data page for the latest data and user questions and comments.

Concepts and Technical Papers

An introduction to military PPP exchange rates and introductory explainers. Some content assume a high level of technical knowledge in Economics, while other content is designed for general readership.

China’s Military Rise: Comparative Military Spending in China and the USA. Discusses appropriate measures of China’s military spending in PPP terms and responds to some recent studies that have shown differing results.

Debating Defence budgets: Why military purchasing power parity matters. An introduction for non specialists published on the Economics Policy website Vox-EU October 2021

The Real Military Balance: International Comparisons of Real Defense Spending – This article published in the Review of Income and Wealth 2021, details the method used to construct military PPP exchange rates. It assumes a high level of technical knowledge in economics. A preprint is available here.

China’s Military Rise – A recent discussion of military PPP comparisons between the USA and China. This paper uses index number techniques to measure the real growth of China’s defence budget and the real size of China’s defense budget relative to the USA, from 2000-2021. The data are available here.

Measuring Hard Power: China’s Economic Growth and Military Capacity – An earlier discussion of military PPP comparison between the USA and China, published in Defence and Peace Economics in 2015 with Adrian Sin. A preprint is available here.

China’s military might is much closer to the US than you probably think. An Introduction to military PPP concepts and discussion of China’s real military Budget. The Conversation October 2019

Features in The Economist

The Economist’s data journalism team have provided excellent introductions to the importance and use of military PPP exchange rates.

Graphic detail. Buck for the bang. Nominal spending figures underestimate China’s military might – The Economist May 1st 2021. Explains why military PPP exchange rates are necessary in order to compare real defense spending across countries. Graphics by Sondre Solstad, data journalist for The Economist

Daily Chart. The military gap between Russia and Ukraine is vast: But not as wide as it may appear – The Economist Feb 25th 2022. On the week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine The Economist used my military PPP data to explain, contrary to polar belief, that Russia’s invasion would not be a walkover.

Defense Policy

Policy discussions around the use of PPP Conversions to quantify China’s military rise and military capacity relative to the USA and other countries.

International Institute for Security Studies (IISS) Military Expenditure, Transparency, Defence Inflation and Purchasing Power Parity Research Paper by the International Institute for Security Studies 20th December 2022 Edited by Fenella McGerty, with contributors Dr Robert G. Bell, Dr Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, Dr Richard Connolly, Professor Adrian Kendry and Professor Peter Robertson.

China’s Defense Budget in Context: How Under-Reporting and Differing Standards and Economies Distort the Picture This influential policy report by Fredrico Bartels of the Heritage Foundation introduces military PPP concepts and explains their importance in the context of understand China’s military budget compared to the USA. The Heritage Foundation is a Washington DC think tank that has been at the forefront of raising policy awareness over the size of China’s military budget in real terms.

Persistent Knowledge Gaps in the Chinese Defense Budget by Frederico Bartels writes in Joint Force Quarterly 105. This 2022 article describes the difficulties in comparing defense budgets and provides context to policy makers for the need for military PPP exchange rates.

How to better understand the Chinese defense budget – A discussion of China’s defense budget with Lucie Béraud-Sudreau from SIPRI and Fred Bartels from The Heritage Foundation

Defence Economics Discussions on Military PPP

Perun is a very informative and entertaining YouTube channel discussing defense strategy, weapons economics, and the war in Ukraine.

China’s Military Modernisation Speedrun – Budget and Purchasing Power Parity – Perun is a very informative and entertaining YouTube channel discussing defense strategy, weapons economics, and the war in Ukraine. Here, Perun describes why military PPP exchange rates are important for understanding the relative real resources that China’s PLA has relative to other countries, and how market exchange rates give a misleading picture.

European Defence & Russian Challenge – Third superpower or paper tiger – A similar informative and entertaining discussion by Perun discussed why military PPP concepts are important for understanding European military balance.