Compiled by BICC, the Global Militarization Index (GMI) presents on an annual basis the relative weight and importance of a country's military apparatus in relation to its society as a whole. The GMI covers 153 countries and is based on the latest available figures (up to 2021). The index project is financially supported by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Previously, the GMI reached back to the 1990s. Due to data reliability reasons, BICC decided to take the older data offline.
Last updated by source: 2022-11-01
| Dataset type: | Time-Series |
| Dataset level: | Country |
(Bayer, Markus and Paul
Rohleder, 2022)
The Global Militarization Index is divided into three overarching categories: expenditure, personnel and heavy weapons. (See variables bicc_milexp, bicc_milper, and bicc_hw). In order to increase the compatibility between different indicators and preventing extreme values from crating distortions when normalizing data, in a first step every indicator was represented in a logarithm with the factor 10. Second, all data was normalized using the formula x=(y-min)/(max-min), with min and max representing, respectively, the lowest and the highest value of the logarithm. In a third step, every indicator was weighted in accordance to a subjective factor, reflecting the relative importance attributed to it by BICC researchers. In order to calculate the final score, the weighted indicators were added together and then normalized one last time on a scale ranging from 0 to 1,000. For better comparison of individual years, all years were finally normalized. Weighting Factors used: Military expenditures as percentage of GDP - 5 Military expenditures in relation to health spending - 3 Military and paramilitary personnel in relation to population - 4 Military reservers in relation to population - 2 Military and paramilitary personnel in relation to physicians - 2 Heavy weapons in relation to population - 4
More about this variableThe GMI takes into consideration the number of an armed forces' heavy weapons in relation to the total population. Heavy weapons are defined here as any piece of military equipment which fits into either one of four categories: armored vehicles (armored personnel carriers, light tanks, main battle tanks), artillery (multiple rocket launchers, self-propelled artillery, towed artillery) above 100mm caliber, combat aircraft (attack helicopters, fixed-wing fighter aircraft), and major fighting ships (submarines, major surface combatants above corvette size). Data on weapons holdings was collected by BICC from different sources, mainly the Military Balance from ISS. Data on small arms and light weapons (SALW) is not only extremely difficult to obtain but also unreliable and was thus not included in the GMI.
More about this variableMilitary spending in relation to GDP and health spending are the most important indicators for determining the level of militarization. Financial resources which are made available via the military budget by a government are an important factor which affects capacities and size of a state's armed forces. The other indicator the GMI uses is the comparison between the total military budget and government spending on health services. Figures for military expenditure are compiled from the data base of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute SIPRI. Even though SIPRI may currently be regarded as the most reliable source, data on military expenditure has to be treated with extreme caution. For many countries, especially in the developing world and autocratic states, the figures are but rough estimates. In cases where SIPRI does not provide any up-to-date information, we adopted the latest available figures provided they were no older than three years. Data on gross domestic product was taken from the International Monetary Fund. Data on health expenditure used have been extracted from the data base of the World Health Organization.
More about this variableThe level of militarization is also represented by the relation of military personnel to the total population and physicians. The first and most important indicator in this category is the active (para)military personnel to the total population. Paramilitary personnel were included here, since in many countries the regular military alone does not adequately reflect the total size of the armed forces. The main criterion for coding an organizational entity as either military or paramilitary is that the forces in question are under the direct control of the government in addition to being armed, uniformed and garrisoned. For a comprehensive presentation of the available personnel and an adequate representation of the relative level of militarization, a second indicator in this category takes into account the percentage of reserve forces in the total population. This factor is relevant for some countries, such as Switzerland that have a comparably small standing army but a more substantial amount of available reserves within society. The third indicator compares the total amount of military and paramilitary forces with the number of physicians in a country in order to express the relation between military and non-military expertise in a society. All data on military personnel was compiled from the Military Balance, the yearbook published by the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IISS). Population size figures were taken from the Vital Statistics Report of the United Nations; data on the number of physicians from the World Health Organization.
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