US Defense Spending as % of GDP

I was discussing with a friend the other day about the spending on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was under the impression that defense spending in the US is much larger than it really is, that it is the cause of a lot of the US’s budget troubles, etc…

Well, whatever one thinks of the war, the current US administration, the other places the US gov’t spends its money, it is important to get the facts straight. Defense spending is not the largest item in the spending of the US. The chart below shows defense spending as a percentage of GDP, the proper way to measure any spending item.

It is 4% of GDP.

More info here on defense spending and other spending items in the US budget.