Department of State Announces Publication of 38th and Final Edition of World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers (WMEAT)

Office of the Spokesperson

The Department of State’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance is pleased to announce its December 2021 posting of WMEAT 2021, the 38th edition of the State Department’s World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers (WMEAT) publication. This edition covers the years 2009-2019 and can be found on the State Department’s website at http://www.state.gov/world-military-expenditures-and-arms-transfers. The 2021 edition of WMEAT, like previous recent annual editions, presents data in spreadsheet form for ease of reference by researchers. WMEAT 2021 is the final edition of WMEAT. Consistent with the repeal in December 2021 of the statutory provision requiring the Department of State to publish WMEAT, the Department will no longer produce and publish WMEAT.

The WMEAT series of publications, begun by the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in the 1960s and 1970s, was designed to be a convenient reference on annual military expenditures, arms transfers, armed forces, selected economic data, and relative indicators consisting of pertinent military-economic ratios. The aim was to provide the arms control and international security community with useful, comprehensive, and accurate data, accompanied by analyses and highlights. All these publications remain posted on the State Department’s website, accessible at http://www.state.gov/world-military-expenditures-and-arms-transfers.