What are the top intelligence agencies with the biggest budgets in the world? People say money doesn’t bring happiness but it can buy you a lot of intelligence and a ton of powerful gadgets that you can use to spy on other governments and terrorist organizations.
In this article we ranked intelligence agencies by their annual budgets. Insider Monkey gathered, verified, assessed and scrutinized the information before finally determining the ranking criteria for these agencies. But before moving further, it is worth mentioning that there can be more than one intelligence agency operating in a particular country. Therefore, we included agencies dealing with external affairs of their respective countries. By the way, you may also be interested in our article about the 7 greatest spies who ever lived.
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There are as many as 1 million personnel working for these organizations and more than $106 billion spent on their activities worldwide as reported in 2009. This goes to show how important their role is for their countries.
In order to rank intelligence agencies with highest spending (and biggest budgets), we looked into their spending patterns, the percentage of GDP spent on their activities and the investments they made in comparison to the spending made by the rest of the world.
The top 10 of the world’s biggest intelligence agencies account for 93% of the total spending made by the intelligence agencies globally. This is what IMF indicated in its WEO report in 2009.
Initially, we looked into the factors that are universally found in all agencies, such as covert action, collection and analysis, and counterintelligence. Then there are other related factors which may or may not be present in an agency, such as focused-targeting, strong communication and all-source synergism. These factors are responsible to aid law enforcement agencies in decision making. The better they are, the easier it is to make decisions. To back these activities, countries spend a handsome amount of national wealth.
Three different research methodologies were used to collect the data. First criterion was the web search using keywords and phrases. Search terms were adjusted time and again to get most relevant information. Secondly, we looked into online publications and journals specific to intelligence, such as “International Journal of Intelligence & Counterintelligence”.
We also looked into government websites for additional information related to our topic. Thirdly, we used search engine alerts and found news, blogs and other online content related to intelligence agencies. However, the data was so diverse that it had to be divided into two main factors, “Known Intelligence Spending” and “Unknown Intelligence Spending”.
The collected data underwent three stages. Firstly, the known intelligence spending of each country is averaged against its GDP to reflect the known spending ratio. Secondly, a single ratio was determined by taking the average of all the ratios of known intelligence spending of each country. Lastly, unknown intelligence spending of the country was identified by cross multiplying this single ratio with the country’s GDP. The rest is easy!
Based on what we found from these sources, here’s our list of top 15 intelligence agencies in the world with highest spending.
15. MOIS – Ministry of Intelligence and Security
Country: Iran
MOIS is the prominent spy network of Iran and the country spends more than $400 million on its intelligence agencies.
14. CSIS – Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Country: Canada
This organization is a major factor of Canadian spy network and it takes $465 – $470 million each year.
13. NDB – Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports
Country: Switzerland
Swiss government spends $470 – $475 million each year on its intelligence. It’s obvious, NDB gets a larger share in this spending.
12. BIN – Badan Intelijen Negara
Country: Indonesia
Indonesia spends approximately $492 million a year on its intelligence agencies and BIN has an important role to play in maintaining the security of this country.
11. GIP – General Intelligence Presidency
Country: Saudi Arabia
GIP secures the 11 spot in our list of top 15 intelligence agencies in the world with highest spending. The country spends more than $495 million on its intelligence each year.
10. BND – Federal Intelligence Service
Country: Germany
Total Expenditure on intelligence ranges between $515 and $520 million.
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9. DGSE – Directorate General for External Security
Country: France
Total Expenditure on intelligence: $635 – $640 million
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8. NIS – National Intelligence Service
Country: South Korea
The country spends nearly $1 billion on its internal and external intelligence agencies.
7. CISEN – Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional
Country: Mexico
Total Expenditure: $1 – $1.1 billion
6. AISE – Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna
Country: Italy
Total Expenditure: $2.2 – $2.3 billion
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5. MI6 – Secret Intelligence Service
Country: United Kingdom
Total Expenditure: $2.8 – $2.9 billion
4. FSB – Federal Security Service
Country: Russia
Total Expenditure: $3.2 – $3.3 billion
3. MSS – Ministry of State Security
Country: China
Total Expenditure: $4.2 – $4.3 billion
2. PSIA – Public Security Intelligence Agency
Country: Japan
Total Expenditure: $4.7 – $4.8 billion
1. CIA – Central Intelligence Agency
Country: United States
United States spends around 65% of the world’s intelligence spending. The country spends over $75 billion each year only on its intelligence. There’s no doubt why CIA is so powerful and prominent.
You must have read several different posts about intelligence agencies, but this list of top 15 intelligence agencies in the world with highest spending stands out due to the amount of research based on reliable sources of information.
