In the course of the war in Ukraine there are many questions arising. Whose fault is it? Who is to blame? Who do we support? Who will win this war? Who will lose it? And what would that mean?
In times of wars (has there ever been a time without wars..?) the military becomes most important. Here are some facts (Source: World Population Review):
Today, we are about 7.7 billion people on this planet. Most of us are living in Asia, the least in Australia and Oceania. By far the most people per space (density) are living in Europe:
The biggest countries by far are China and India. Both are inhabited by more than a billion people each:
This means that the Chairman of the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China and the Prime Minister of India are governing more than a quarter of the people on Earth. From this base we are now turning to military power. Here we are:
The United States of America are spending the most money on weapons on Earth, and this by far. The military spendings of the US currently equal nearly 40 percent of the whole world, more than the ten next countries together.
But the USA are not alone, they are also leading the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NATO. So, let’s take a look at this:
NATO currently consists of 30 countries in North America and Europe, plus Finland and Sweden having applied for membership. These 32 countries represent 12 percent of the population on Earth.
Their citizens spend nearly ten times more on weapons (1,093.97 US$ per capita 2022) than all other people in the world (128.61 US$ per capita 2022). On the whole they own more than half of all weapons on Earth.
—
Vienna Calling 