Estonian military defence has undergone tremendous development since the restoration of independence, the extent and influence of which can also be characterised through the use of various objective metrics.
The best known metric is 2% – the ratio of national defence expenditure to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Although monetary expenditures are not the only measuring stick for national defence activities.
Metrics describing national defence development show both general development and the evolution of narrower fields, to illustrate the history and current state of military defence. The various metrics for measuring national defence development show how the training of active servicemembers and conscripts is proceeding, the kinds of armaments or infrastructure being invested in, to what degree the Estonian Defence Forces are contributing to international operations, and what is the overall will to defend the country of society.
This website has two possible starting points on different scales: either 1998, i.e., the state of things 20+ years ago, or upon joining NATO in 2004. Blank data fields mean that data has not yet been collected for the corresponding year, that metric is not uniquely transferable for comparison, or there is some other limiting factor that prevents a specific indicator from being displayed for that year.