Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait Account For Nearly a Quarter of All the World’s Arms Imports
Qatar was the world’s biggest arms importer in 2022, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Last year, Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, Qatar’s imports of weapons accounted for 10.4 per cent of all global imports, even outpacing India (8.9 per cent) and Ukraine (8.3 per cent), which has been regularly supported with arms deliveries by an international alliance since the start of the Russian invasion last year.
When looking at the main importers of arms over a five-year average (2018-2022), India was the biggest arms importer with a global share of 11 per cent, followed by Saudi Arabia (9.6 per cent), Qatar (6.4 per cent), Australia (4.7 per cent) and China (4.6 per cent).
In terms of the main exporters over that time, the top five were the United States (40 per cent of the global share), Russia (16 per cent), France (11 per cent), China (5.2 per cent) and Germany (4.2 per cent).
Regionally, Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania and the Middle East all saw a decrease from 2013-2017 to 2018-2022. Only Europe bucked this trend, with a 47 per cent increase in the flow of arms to the continent.
