variables: 959835

This table contains all the variables of all the datasets we have at Our World In Data. Note that this includes only the information about the variables like name and default display settings, not the data itself.

Data license: CC-BY

This data as json

id name unit description createdAt updatedAt code coverage timespan datasetId sourceId shortUnit display columnOrder originalMetadata grapherConfigAdmin shortName catalogPath dimensions schemaVersion processingLevel processingLog titlePublic titleVariant attributionShort attribution descriptionShort descriptionFromProducer descriptionKey descriptionProcessing licenses license grapherConfigETL type sort dataChecksum metadataChecksum
959835 Military expenditure (current GBP and US$) current GBP and US$   2024-07-30 12:02:09 2024-07-30 12:02:10     1816-2016 6645   $ 
{
    "name": "Military expenditure",
    "unit": "current GBP and US$",
    "shortUnit": "$",
    "tolerance": 5,
    "numDecimalPlaces": 0
}
 0     milex grapher/cow/2024-07-26/national_material_capabilities/national_material_capabilities#milex   2 minor   Military expenditure       This data is expressed in British pounds prior to 1914 and US dollars thereafter. It is not adjusted for inflation or differences in the cost of living between countries. Military expenditure is each state’s total military budget in each year for the period 1816-2016. _Data Acquisition and Generation_ Since our primary interest was to index all financial resources available to the military in time of war, we coded all resources devoted to military forces that could be deployed, irrespective of their active or reserve status. Appropriations for all the types of units mentioned earlier were included when the units were under the authority of officials of the national government, even if the units did not contribute to the personnel variable. Such units typically were excluded from published budgets, in any case. It is important to note that in our assessments the sources of military expenditure data often provided gross (rather than net) expenditure figures. We sought to identify and exclude all appropriations of a non-military character because some nations have civil ministries under military control (national police forces is the most prevalent example). The use of such unadjusted budgets would substantially over-estimate the military capability of those nations. If there was a clear bureaucratic division between the execution of civil and military functions, this task was easily accomplished. For instance, if there were separate accounting and authorization procedures for merchant- and military-marine, expenditures of the former were excluded. On the other hand, merchant marine expenditures charged to the same administrative units that carried out military marine functions were included in the project's tabulations. Likewise, the budget figures were adjusted upward where we determined that outlays in other parts of the budget served to enhance military capacity. Having made the above distinction concerning money spent on military forces, we delimited part of the latter directly related to a country's war fighting capacity; that is, we had to distinguish which figures going for military purposes were destined to enhance capability. We deemed that expenditures on pensions, superannuation pay, relief, and subsidies to widows and orphans do not contribute to military power and excluded them where possible. For most statistically developed countries, these items were found to be readily identified in a separate section of the military budget, or charged outright to the finance ministry. We decided to identify gross rather than net expenditures, so as to sidestep problems of accounting for the yearly variations in stockpile buildup, depreciation, and liquidation. As with the accounting of energy stocks, little was found that would have allowed us to determine net expenditures. We closely attended to allocations, usually found in supplemental budgets, special accounts, and war credits and loans, over and above regular appropriations. Examples include the special funds and credits voted during the mobilizations prior to and during the two world wars, and the loans contracted by Prussia prior to the Franco-Prussian War. With regard to these special appropriations, some ambiguity exists as to which year the expenditures should be assigned. Since our objective was that each unit of currency spent on military capabilities should be counted only in the year that it directly enhanced military capability, it counted surpluses and credits transferred from past years (when known) among the expenditures of the referent year. For example, expenditures from special accounts (such as the construction of fortifications or the purchase of armaments) were included in the expenditure totals for that year. If the special account was composed of transfers from the general budget, expenditures on that account were included in the year in which they were spent or projected to be spent. If the special account was composed of credits budgeted to a war ministry in previous years, but unspent in those previous years, we included only actual expenditures from that account in the project's totals for the appropriate years. Outlays for the amortization of debts incurred were excluded, since the project had already counted them in the year in which the military items were acquired. Thus, if a naval ship was acquired in 1923 but not paid for until 1926, we counted the corresponding expenditure in 1923. Surplus military appropriations from previous years were counted as military expenditures only for those years when the funds were actually spent. The customary difficulties in Soviet statistics were resolved by period. For the years prior to the Second World War, the fragmentation of the evidence precludes an appraisal of real expenditures. Rather than engage in speculation, the project reported the official figures published in the League of Nations Armaments Year-Book from 1924 to 1940. From 1955 to 1963 we utilized SIPRI estimates and from 1963 on have used ACDA figures. 
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 d809008729a524b3922f7acdfdf2c786 ecbb9d10ed068373442ad4de4461be1b

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