Some interesting statistics about the world arms trade, from the Visual Capitalist via theburningplatform.com:
The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.
The world puts $1.69 trillion towards military expenditures per year, and about $375 billion of that goes towards buying arms specifically.
Whether it is guns, tanks, jets, missiles, or ships that are on your shopping list, in the international arms community, there is a supplier for any weapon your country desires.
Arms dealers, by sales
Today’s chart organizes the world’s top arms companies by sales, location, and arms as a percentage of sales:
| Rank | Company | Country | Arms sales (2016) | Arms as % of sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Lockheed Martin | USA | $40.8B | 86% |
| #2 | Boeing | USA | $29.5B | 31% |
| #3 | Raytheon | USA | $22.9B | 95% |
| #4 | BAE Systems | UK | $22.8B | 95% |
| #5 | Northrop Grumman | USA | $21.4B | 87% |
| #6 | General Dynamics | USA | $19.2B | 61% |
| #7 | Airbus Group | EU | $12.5B | 17% |
| #8 | BAE Systems (U.S.) | USA | $9.3B | 93% |
| #9 | L3 Technologies | USA | $8.9B | 85% |
| #10 | Leonardo | Italy | $8.5B | 64% |
Note: Airbus considers itself a European company. It’s registered in the Netherlands, and its main HQ is in France.The above data comes courtesy of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which tracks arms deals and companies extensively.
To continue reading: The 10 Companies That Dominate the Global Arms Trade
