Global Nuclear Arsenal:
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently revealed in its new yearbook 2025 that nine countries worldwide possess as many as 12,241 nuclear weapons as of January 1, 2025.
- At the start of 2025, nine states together possessed approximately 12,241 nuclear weapons.
- Which countries have nuclear warheads? As per the report, the nine nuclear-armed states are the US, Russia, the United Kingdom (UK), France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), and Israel.
- The report said that these countries “continued intensive nuclear modernisation programmes in 2024, upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions”.
- The report further revealed that of the total global inventory of an estimated 12,241 warheads in January 2025, about 9,614 were in military stockpiles for potential use.
- An estimated 3,912 of those warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft, and the rest were in central storage.
- Around 2,100 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles.
- China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than any other countries, by about 100 new warheads a year since 2023.
- It also mentioned that India is believed to have once again slightly expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2024 and continued to develop new types of nuclear delivery systems, including potentially canisterised missiles capable of carrying multiple warheads.
- Russia and the USA together possess around 90 percent of all nuclear weapons.
- The U.S. has 1,770 deployed and 1,930 stored warheads, while its inventory stands at 5,177 in 2025 compared with 5,328 in 2024.
- Russia has 1,718 deployed and 2,591 stored warheads, and its inventory stands at 5,459, as against 5,580 in 2024.
- Overall, the number of nuclear warheads in the world continues to decline, due to the USA and Russia dismantling retired warheads.
