Japan vs Switzerland: Military spending as a share of GDP
Japan
0.6%
in 2019
Switzerland
0.6%
in 2019
Japan rank
147th
Switzerland rank
146th
Military spending as a share of GDP over time
- Japan
- Switzerland
How they compare
Switzerland currently reports 0.6% against 0.6% in Japan, a difference of 0.0%.
The two have swapped places 8 times across 154 shared years of data; in 1860 it was Switzerland ahead.
Japan ranks 147th and Switzerland ranks 146th of 172 countries.
Across the 16 decades both report, Japan averaged higher in 10 and Switzerland in 6.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Japan | Switzerland | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860s | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% | Japan |
| 1870s | 0.8% | 0.3% | 0.4% | Japan |
| 1880s | 1.0% | 0.6% | 0.5% | Japan |
| 1890s | 2.5% | 0.7% | 1.8% | Japan |
| 1900s | 5.7% | 0.6% | 5.2% | Japan |
| 1910s | 3.4% | 0.4% | 3.0% | Japan |
| 1920s | 2.6% | 0.5% | 2.1% | Japan |
| 1930s | 4.6% | 0.9% | 3.7% | Japan |
| 1940s | 31.9% | 1.6% | 30.3% | Japan |
| 1950s | 1.1% | 1.5% | 0.4% | Switzerland |
| 1960s | 0.5% | 1.3% | 0.8% | Switzerland |
| 1970s | 0.6% | 1.3% | 0.7% | Switzerland |
| 1980s | 0.7% | 1.4% | 0.7% | Switzerland |
| 1990s | 0.8% | 1.2% | 0.4% | Switzerland |
| 2000s | 0.6% | 0.7% | 0.0% | Switzerland |
| 2010s | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.0% | Japan |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher military spending as a share of gdp, Japan or Switzerland?
- Switzerland, at 0.6% against 0.6% in Japan as of 2019.
- What is the difference in military spending as a share of gdp between Japan and Switzerland?
- 0.0%, with Switzerland ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Japan and Switzerland?
- 154 years are reported by both, from 1860 to 2019.
- How do Japan and Switzerland rank globally for military spending as a share of gdp?
- Japan ranks 147th and Switzerland ranks 146th of 172 countries.
- Where does this data come from?
- Barnum et al. - Global Military Spending Dataset (2025) β with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as Military spending as a share of GDP. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.
Individual pages
About this data
Military spending measured as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).