Short answers, pulled from the story.
SIPRI was established on the 1st of July 1966 by decision of the Swedish Riksdag, with the legal status of an independent foundation. The idea originated with Swedish Prime Minister Tage Erlander in 1964, who proposed the institute to commemorate Sweden's 150 years of unbroken peace.
The SIPRI Yearbook is the institute's main publication, first issued on the 12th of November 1969. It serves as an independent annual account of developments in armaments, armed conflicts, and disarmament, and is now translated into Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian, among other languages.
The trend-indicator value, or TIV, is a metric SIPRI developed to measure the volume of major conventional weapons deliveries in terms of military capability rather than price. It allows meaningful comparisons across different types of arms transfers without relying on the purchase cost of the weapons.
Stefan Löfven, former Prime Minister of Sweden, has served as Chair of the SIPRI Governing Board since the 1st of June 2022. The first Chair was Alva Myrdal, who held the position from 1966 to 1967.
SIPRI's March 2026 report found that Europe had become the world's largest arms-importing region, with arms imports by European states rising significantly during the 2021-2025 period following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Poland was identified as one of the continent's largest importers, and South Korea emerged as a major new arms exporter largely through large-scale contracts with European countries.
SIPRI's funding comes primarily from governments and independent philanthropic organisations around the world, plus an annual core grant from the Swedish government approved by the Swedish parliament. It operates as an independent foundation, and its research is based on open sources to maintain impartiality.