Via Global Issues:

* World military expenditure in 2008 is estimated to have reached $1.464 trillion in current dollars

* This represents a 4 per cent increase in real terms since 2007 and a 45 per cent increase over the 10-year period since 1999;

* This corresponds to 2.4 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP), or $217 for each person in the world;

* The USA with its massive spending budget, is the principal determinant of the current world trend, and its military expenditure now accounts for just under half of the world total