Danish Defence expenditure

The total budget amounts to 36.2 billion DKK in 2024 according to the Danish Finance Act for 2024.

The appropriations include:

•  The Danish Defence Agreement 2024-2033 of June 2023,

• Agreement of new fighter aircraft of June 2016.

In addition to the appropriations under the Ministry Defence, the General reserves of the Finance act contains funds regarding military support to Ukraine.
 
The appropriations are distributed among main accounts, activity areas and budget areas (see table 1-3 in the below document).

Overview of the appropriations of the Ministry of Defence in the Finance Act 2024

For further information of the Danish defence budget refer to the Agency for Public Finance and Management, Ministry of Finance www.oes.dk/english

Defence expenditures according to NATO’s definition

Defence expenditures according to NATO’s definition NATO defines defence expenditures as payments made by a national government specifically to meet the needs of its armed forces, those of Allies or of the Alliance. The general definition is to some extent supplemented with further guidelines concerning expenditures, which can or cannot be included as defence expenditures. In certain areas, NATO’s definition deviates from the Danish definition of the Defence budget. For instance, expenditures paid by Ministries other than the Ministry of Defence may qualify as defence expenditures according to NATO’s definition. On the other hand, some expenditures incurred within the national defence budget are excluded from NATO’s definition of defence expenditures. Subsequently, it is not decisive whether an expenditure is incurred within or outside the national defence budget. Thus, NATO’s definition enables a comparison of defence expenditures across NATO member states, as it takes into account variations in the structures of defence budgets.

Consequently, the defence expenditures reported to NATO are based on the national defence budget adjusted for expenditures, which are not in accordance with NATO’s definition, such as expenditures for civil defence and The Veteran Centre. Furthermore, other strictly civilian expenditures related to the environmental-protection vessels and The Coastal Rescue Service are also excluded from the calculation of defence expenditures reported to NATO.

Certain expenditures incurred by ministries other than the Ministry of Defence are included as defence expenditures, if, based on a concrete assessment, they are considered to comply with the criteria of the NATO definition, or if they are specifically mentioned as expenditures to be included. For example, health care for present employees and state pension to retirees are included. Pension for public servants, who have served under the Ministry of Defence, is included as a direct consequence of NATO’s definition.

The calculation of the Danish defence expenditures, according to NATO’s definition, results in a somewhat higher estimate than the national definition (see table 4).

Based on the reported defence expenditures according to NATO’s definition, NATO calculates the defence expenditures as a percentage of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (see table 5).

More information can be found on NATO webpage