World Nuclear Weapon Stockpile

Arsenal Size
Nuclear Terrorism
Emerging Nuclear States
Security Concerns
Regional Conflict

Nine countries in the world possess a total of 13,082 nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia account for 90 percent of them. Since their peak in the mid-1980’s, global arsenals have shrunk by over three-fourths. More countries have given up weapons and programs in the past 30 years than have tried to acquire them. The direction is positive, but when you are fleeing a forest fire it is not just direction but speed that matters. Ploughshares Fund is committed to reducing nuclear threats before it is too late.

Total Nuclear Weapons: 13,082

Global Nuclear Arsenals Over Time

About the World Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Report

Thirty one years after the end of the Cold War, the world’s combined stockpiles of nuclear weapons remain at unacceptably high levels.

Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda of the Federation of American Scientists are the leading experts in estimating the size of global nuclear weapons inventories. The table is a compilation of their estimates and analyses, with links to their full reports. These reports are published in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Nuclear Notebook and discussed further at the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

As the authors of these estimates note, the above numbers may not add up due to rounding and uncertainty about the operational statuses and size of the total inventories. For a full analysis of how the authors arrived at their estimates, please view the provided links for the complete reports.

Current information from these same authors on US ballistic missile defense is now also available.

Updated June 15, 2021.