Canadian Military Spending as a Percent of GDP

This chart might come as a surprise to some Canadians. Canada’s defence spending as a percentage of GDP has decreased since 2009 and is now lower than it was when the Conservative government took office. Although, as I noted in an earlier post, GDP per capita is a blunt measure that tells us nothing about the effectiveness or efficiency of spending, it does indicate the broad direction of defence spending, relative both to the past and to spending by other countries.

See also:

• Roland Paris, Is Canada Pulling Its Weight in NATO?

• Roland Paris, Global Military Spending by Region