The World's Biggest Postwar Arms Exporters

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released its latest arms trade data today and we've delved into it, looking all the way back to the export figures from 1950. Since then, and probably unsurprisingly, the two biggest arms exporters have been the U.S. and Russia (including the Soviet Union) with a total of 673 billion and 588 billion respectively. Looking beyond these behemoths, the UK has actually been the third largest exporter, shipping arms worth 140 billion over the 68 year period.

This infographic uses the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's "trend-indicator values" (TIV). These are based on the known unit production costs of weapons and represent the transfer of military resources rather than the financial value of the transfer.