Military expenditures as a percentage of gross national product. The U.S. spends a lot on its military but has a lot to spend. Some other countries don’t have much but spend it on the military anyway. World leader: Eritrea, which spends 27.4 percent of its $757 million GNP (world rank: 155) on the armed services, most of it presumably to fight its archenemy, Ethiopia. The balance of the top ten, with percentages ranging between 21.2 and 8.8: Angola, North Korea, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Congo, Qatar, Jordan, Ethiopia, and Israel. U.S. rank: 52nd, at 3 percent.