Turkey's military expenditure $14.5 billion in 2011

BRUSSELS - Anatolia News Agency

Turkey’s army expenditure rose to $14.5 billion in 2011 from $14.134 billion in 2010. DHA photo

Turkey, holder of the second largest army in NATO, spent nearly $14.5 billion on its military last year, becoming the seventh largest spender among the member states, according to data gather by the Anatolia news agency.

The Turkish military’s total population stood around 720,000 in 2011, while the U.S. military topped the list with a little less than 1.43 million soldiers. NATO’s largest army’s expenditures fell from $785.8 billion in 2010 to $731.9 billion last year. Still, this figure more than doubles the expenditures of the remaining NATO member states.

The total number of soldiers held by the 28 NATO member states is approximately 3.5 million, with about 2.27 million of that total being soldiers from European member states. Turkish soldiers constitute some one fourth of NATO’s Europe forces.

France has the third most populated army with 227,000 soldiers. Germany, U.K., Italy, Spain, Greece and Poland follow respectively.

The ratio of soldiers currently in total work power within Turkey is 2.1 percent. The figure is highest in Greece with 2.7 while the NATO member average stands at 0.9. These figures also cover civil personnel working for the military.