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