Project 01 · Power and exposure do not overlap · 2024 spend · 2022–2024 deaths

$10.9 million
per death.

What states spent on defence in 2024, divided by what conflicts killed.

In 2024, the world spent $2.718 trillion on military forces — the highest figure ever recorded. But the countries spending the most were not the countries losing the most. The map of power and the map of exposure split apart.

$2.7T
World military spending · 2024 (SIPRI)
≈37%
U.S. share · 2024 (36.7%)
≈60%
Top 5 spenders · 2024
Military spending 2024 · 49 countries plotted
X = military spending · Y = conflict deaths
Military spending
Conflict deaths
Power and exposure — 49 countries, 2024 spending vs 2022–2024 conflict deaths Four-step chart. Step 1: countries are sized by 2024 military spending — the United States dominates with 36.7% of world spending. Step 2: an inner circle shows recorded conflict deaths from 2022 to 2024. Step 3 highlights the main outliers: USA and China at the spending edge, Palestine at the exposure edge, Ukraine carrying both. Step 4 arranges countries by military spending on X and conflict deaths on Y, showing power and exposure in opposite quadrants.
← Less spending · More spending →
More deaths ↑
SIPRI Military Expenditure (Current 2024 USD) · ACLED · 49 countries · 2022–2024
01 / 04
01 — The Field

One country.
A third of everything.

Each circle is a country. Its size reflects military spending in 2024.

One circle dominates: the United States. Alone, it accounts for 36.7% of global military expenditure.

The first asymmetry appears before deaths enter the chart: military power is already concentrated.

36.7%
USA share of
world spending · 2024
11.5%
China share of
world spending · 2024
02 — The Asymmetry

Then deaths
enter the field.

An inner circle appears inside each country — sized by recorded conflict deaths from 2022 to 2024.

In the largest military spenders, the mark is almost invisible. In Ukraine, Myanmar, Palestine and Sudan, it takes over.

The chart now separates capacity from exposure.

$1.0T
USA military spending
2024 alone
$0
Recorded spend ·
Palestine, Sudan, DR Congo
03 — The Outliers

The extremes
reveal the split.

United States and China sit at the spending edge, with almost no recorded conflict deaths at home.

Palestine sits at the exposure edge, with no recorded military expenditure. Ukraine is the exception: both columns are filled at scale.

Power and exposure rarely occupy the same point.

04 — The Structure

The gap
is structural.

The chart becomes a map of imbalance. X = military spending. Y = conflict deaths.

In the lower-right: high spending, low domestic death. In the upper-left: low spending, extreme exposure.

Military power and human vulnerability are arranged on opposite sides of the same system.

$10.9M
Spent globally
per conflict death · 2024
9

Of the 49 plotted countries, 9 have near-zero military spending and more than 1,000 conflict deaths 2022–2024: Sudan, Palestine, Somalia, DR Congo, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti, Venezuela. The asymmetry, in nine names.

34.5%

Ukraine's military spending as a share of GDP in 2024 — the highest proportion of any country on Earth. Up from 3.8% in 2015.

≈+1,250%

Ukraine's military spending increase 2015–2024. The largest 10-year rise recorded in the SIPRI database — from a peacetime budget to a wartime one.

$149Bvs $64.7B

Russia spent $149B for 5,255 recorded deaths on its territory. Ukraine spent $64.7B for 154,560. One conflict — two opposite ledgers.

Coming next · Section 04

If power buys safety,
what does displacement buy?

Displacement is not a moment. It is a condition. By the end of 2024, 31 million people lived as refugees. For many — Afghans, Somalis, Sudanese, Syrians — exile has stretched into a second or third decade.