Data story · who has the bomb
Nuclear Weapon Inventory
Total nuclear warheads, every year since 1945 — who built them, who tore them down, and the two superpowers that have always sat a class apart. The arsenal that almost ended the world is a third of what it was, but it never went to zero.
The global stockpile peaked at 64,452 warheads in 1986 — and has fallen 85% to 9,745 by 2026. Almost all of that drawdown is the United States and Russia dismantling Cold-War stockpiles. China’s, meanwhile, is climbing again.
Each band is one country’s arsenal. The two superpowers dwarf everyone else — so the original split the detail into USA, Russia, and “the rest.” Pick a preset or a country to isolate it — the map highlights with you.
What today’s arsenals actually are
A stockpile isn’t one thing. Deployed warheads sit on missiles and at bomber bases, ready to launch; reserve warheads are stored but could be uploaded; retired ones are intact but queued for dismantlement. Only the two superpowers carry large retired tails — the legacy of the teardown above.
- Russia5,420
- United States5,042
- China620
- France370
- United Kingdom225
- India178
- Pakistan170
- Israel90
- North Korea60
The year each country went nuclear
- United States19453,700 today
- Russia19494,400 today
- United Kingdom1953225 today
- China1964620 today
- France1964290 today
- Israel196790 today
- South Africa1982dismantled
- India1998190 today
- Pakistan1998170 today
- North Korea201560 today
Dates are the first year FAS estimates an assembled, stockpiled warhead — so North Korea shows 2015, not its first nuclear test in 2006. The two can differ by years: testing a device and fielding a deliverable warhead aren’t the same milestone.
Data: Our World in Data, reproducing the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Nuclear Notebook. Feeds: public/data/nuclear-arsenal.csv + nuclear-breakdown.csv, refreshed yearly via scripts/build-nuclear-arsenal.mjs. View the original on Tableau Public →