§ Mr. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each member State of NATO for each year since 1973 in terms of both current and constant prices (a) total defence expenditure, (b) defence expenditure per head of population, (c) defence spending as a percentage of total Government spending and (d) defence spending as a percentage of gross national product.
§ Mr. PymThe information requested, in terms of current prices, is set out in the tables below; figures at constant prices are not available since NATO does not publish them in that form. The NATO definition of defence expenditure—which is broader than the United Kingdom national definition—has been used throughout. The figures for 1978 are provisional. Information about the defence expenditure of Turkey and Greece has not been available since 1975 and 1976 respectively. Iceland, although a member of NATO, has no defence expenditure.
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DEFENCE EXPENDITURES AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND AS A PERCENTAGE OF GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT Percentage of total government expenditure (financial year) Percentage of GDP (calendar year) 1973 or 1974 or 1975 or 1976 or 1977 or 1978 or Country 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 Belgium … 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.3 9.9 9.2 2.8 2.8 3.1 3.1 3.2 3.3 Canada … 10.7 9.5 9.5 9.7 9.8 10.2 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 2.0 2.0 Denmark … 7.8 7.8 7.5 7.5 7.6 NA 2.1 2.4 2.6 2.4 2.4 2.5 France … 18.9 17.4 16.6 18.1 18.4 19.9 3.8 3.7 3.9 3.8 3.9 4.0 Germany … 26.2 26.7 24.1 24.1 23.5 22.6 3.5 3.6 3.6 3.5 3.4 3.3 Greece … 19.2 18.9 25.9 NA NA NA 4.1 4.3 6.5 NA NA NA Italy … 12.2 11.0 10.2 9.8 9.6 8.1 2.9 2.8 2.7 2.5 2.6 2.6 Luxembourg … 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 2.7 2.9 0.8 0.8 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.1 Netherlands … 12.0 12.0 11.1 10.2 11.0 9.6 3.3 3.3 3.5 3.3 3.6 3.4 Norway … 13.6 13.1 13.4 12.2 10.9 10.7 3.1 3.0 3.2 3.1 3.1 3.2 Portugal … 34.2 39.6 23.0 15.1 12.6 11.9 6.0 7.4 5.3 4.1 3.5 3.3 Turkey … 19.4 21.6 NA NA NA NA 4.1 3.9 NA NA NA NA United Kingdom … 18.2 16.2 15.5 16.2 16.1 14.0 4.9 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.8 4.7 United States of America … 30.1 27.1 24.8 24.9 23.2 NA 6.0 6.1 6.0 5.3 5.4 5.0 The percentages of total government expenditure devoted to defence give no more than a rough trend. Comparisons between countries would be misleading since there are marked differences in the role an extent of central budgets.
The figures for the United Kingdom are higher than would be the case if national definitions of defence expenditure and total government expenditure were used.
NATO now uses the gross domestic product as the basic aggregate in place of the gross national product.
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TOTAL DEFENCE EXPENDITURES 1973–78—(Calendar year; current prices) 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 Country National currency US$ National currency US$ National currency US$ National currency US$ National currency US$ National currency US$ Belgium … … 150,533 1,299 57,739 1,482 70,899 1,928 81,444 2,110 89,480 2,497 99,008 3,076 Canada … … 2,405 2,403 2,862 2,926 3,127 3,075 3,589 3,640 4,124 3,878 4,597 4,103 Denmark … … 3,520 582 4,439 728 5,281 918 5,680 940 6,343 1,057 7,135 1 259 France … … 42,284 9,466 47,878 9,944 55,873 13,036 63,899 13,369 73,530 14,965 83,414 17,820 Germany … … 31,908 11,928 35,644 13,775 37,589 15,267 38,922 15,457 40,184 17,308 42,588 20,510 Greece … … 19,866 670 24,126 804 43,917 1,363 NA NA NA NA NA NA Italy … … 2,392 4,106 2,852 4,391 3 104 4,756 3,608 4,335 4,533 5,137 5,223 6,058 Luxembourg … … 601 16 710 18 836 23 983 26 1,029 29 1,160 36 Netherlands … … 5,465 1,954 6,254 2,324 7,246 2,865 7,817 2,957 9,260 3,773 9,367 4,213 Norway … … 3,505 602 3,938 713 4,771 910 5,333 977 5,934 1,115 6,756 1,269 Portugal … … 16,736 651 25,108 985 19,898 780 18,845 624 22,082 577 26,111 618 Turkey … … 12,192 870 15,831 1,140 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA United Kingdom … … 3,512 8,611 4,160 9,735 5,165 11,476 6,132 11,075 6,822 11,908 7,492 14,092 United States of America … 78,358 78,358 85,906 85,906 90,948 90,948 91,013 91,013 100,928 100,928 105,135 105,135 All figures are expressed in millions, except for Italy whose national currency is expressed in billions.
The conversion to United States dollars has been made using average exchange rates which countries periodically submit to the OECD; the rates differ from year to year.
PER CAPITA DEFENCE EXPENDITURES (1973–78)—(Calendar year; current prices) 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 Country National currency US$ National currency US$ National currency US$ National currency US$ National currency US$ National currency US$ Belgium … … 5,024 129 5,873 151 7,234 197 8,295 215 9,103 254 10,044 312 Canada … … 109 109 127 130 138 136 156 158 177 166 194 173 Denmark … … 701 116 880 144 1,044 182 1,120 185 1,246 208 1,397 247 France … … 811 182 912 189 1,060 247 1,208 253 1,384 282 1,560 333 Germany … … 532 199 594 230 628 255 653 259 676 291 719 347 Greece … … 2,225 75 2,692 90 4,855 151 NA NA NA NA NA NA Italy … … 43,560 75 51,466 79 55,624 85 64,252 77 80,298 91 92,109 107 Luxembourg … … 1,703 44 1,988 51 2,328 63 2,762 72 2,898 81 3,278 102 Netherlands … … 407 145 462 172 531 210 568 215 668 272 674 303 Norway … … 885 152 988 179 1,191 227 1,324 243 1,467 276 1,667 313 Portugal … … 1,954 76 2,824 111 2,066 81 1,944 64 2,261 59 2,651 63 Turkey … … 320 23 405 29 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA United Kingdom … … 63 155 74 173 92 204 110 199 122 213 134 252 United States of America … 372 372 405 405 426 426 423 423 465 465 481 481