US Military Spending Per Taxpayer

$5,640 Per Taxpayer (DoD Only)

Based on the $886 billion FY2025 defense budget and approximately 157 million individual tax filers, each taxpayer contributes an average of $5,640 to the Department of Defense.

$8,900+ Per Taxpayer (Total National Security)

When including Veterans Affairs ($325B), Homeland Security ($62B), nuclear weapons programs ($38B), intelligence agencies (~$100B), and defense-related debt interest, the total national security cost per taxpayer rises to approximately $8,900.

Daily Cost Per Taxpayer

This breaks down to approximately $15.45 per taxpayer per day for DoD spending, or $24.38 per day for total national security costs. Every day, each American taxpayer effectively spends more on defense than on a typical lunch.

Where Your Tax Dollar Goes

• $1.86/day — Operations & maintenance (fuel, training, bases)
• $1.12/day — Military personnel (pay, benefits, housing)
• $1.07/day — Buying new weapons and equipment
• $0.91/day — Research & development
• $10.49/day — Everything else (VA, DHS, intel, interest)

Opportunity Cost

The $886 billion DoD budget alone could fund free public college for every American student ($80B/year) 11 times over, or provide universal pre-K education ($30B) 29 times over, or eliminate childhood hunger ($25B) 35 times over.