A record number of Nato nations are set to meet or exceed the alliance’s spending target, but other members are still falling short.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said 18 nations were expected to spend 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2024 – up from 11 in 2023 and a six-fold increase from 2014 when only three Nato allies hit the spending target.

The expected increase in defence spending also means European Nato allies as a whole will collectively spend 2% of their combined GDP – worth $380bn – on defence for the first time.

“We are making real progress. European allies are spending more. However, some allies still have a way to go,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

The latest increases follow a trend of gradual increases in defence spending across the alliance over the last decade – Nato allies in Europe invested only 1.47% of their collective GDP in defence in 2014.

Nato is yet to reveal which members are set to spend 2% of their GDP on defence, but Germany has already announced it is one of the new nations to hit the target.

The last time Germany spent at least 2% of its GDP on defence was in the early 1990s.

Which nations are spending 2% on defence?

This year’s figures are yet to be released by the alliance so it is unclear exactly which 18 nations are set to hit the 2% baseline, but last year’s statistics show some interesting trends.

Eleven nations in 2023 reached the Nato guideline, up from seven in 2022.

Poland was the alliance’s biggest spender as a share of GDP, contributing 3.90%, spending even more as a share of GDP than the US (3.49%) in second and Greece (3.01%) the next closest.

One trend seen is that countries bordering Ukraine, Russia, or its neighbour and ally Belarus are spending increasingly more following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Estonia (2.73%), Lithuania (2.54%), Finland (2.45%), Romania (2.44%), Hungary (2.43%) and Latvia (2.07%) are all exceeding the alliance’s guideline for defence expenditure.

The UK did make the 2% list.

However, the percentage spent by Britain on defence has dropped rather than risen over recent years, from 2.14% in 2014 to an estimated 2.07% in 2023.

In 2022, the UK was the fourth highest proportional spender within Nato, but dropped down to 10th in 2023, just ahead of Slovakia (2.03%).

The nations falling short of the alliance’s target in 2023 were France (1.90%), Montenegro (1.87%), North Macedonia (1.87%), Bulgaria (1.84%), Croatia (1.79%), Albania (1.76%), the Netherlands (1.70%), Norway (1.67%), Denmark (1.65%), Czech Republic (1.50%), Portugal (1.48%), Italy (1.46%), Canada (1.38%), Slovenia (1.35%), Turkey (1.31%), Spain (1.26%), Belgium (1.13%) and Luxembourg (0.72%).

Iceland, which does not have any armed forces, was not featured on the list.

Nato was formed in the aftermath of the Second World War and its original goals were to secure peace in Europe, promote co-operation among its members and counter the threat posed by the Soviet Union.