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Nuclear Arsenals of the World Today

Nine countries possess nuclear weapons today. Independent estimates (the Federation of American Scientists and SIPRI publish the most cited counts) put the global stockpile at roughly 12,000 warheads — down from a Cold War peak of about 70,000 in 1986, but still enough to destroy civilisation many times over.

ICBM test launch
A Peacekeeper ICBM test launch. A single modern missile can carry several independently targeted warheads.
Nuclear warheads by country chart
Estimated warhead counts: Russia and the United States hold about 90% of the world total.

Who has what

  • Russia — about 5,400 warheads, the world's largest stockpile, delivered by silo and mobile ICBMs (including the Topol family and its successors), submarines and bombers.
  • United States — about 5,100 warheads across the Minuteman III ICBM force, Trident submarines and strategic bombers, including the 1.2-megaton B83 bomb, the largest weapon in its current arsenal.
  • China — roughly 600 warheads and growing faster than any other arsenal, with new missile silo fields under construction.
  • France — about 290 warheads, on submarines and aircraft.
  • United Kingdom — about 225 warheads, entirely on Trident submarines.
  • India and Pakistan — roughly 170–180 each, in a fast-evolving regional deterrence pair.
  • Israel — an undeclared arsenal estimated at around 90 warheads.
  • North Korea — enough fissile material for several dozen weapons; its 2017 test yielded well over 100 kilotons.
Global nuclear stockpile over time
The global stockpile peaked near 70,000 warheads in 1986 and has fallen to about 12,000.

Deployed versus stockpiled

Only a fraction of these warheads sit on missiles ready to fly — a few thousand between Russia and the United States, of which several hundred on each side are on day-to-day alert. The rest are in reserve or awaiting dismantlement. The last remaining US–Russian arms control agreement, New START, expired in February 2026, leaving the two largest arsenals without a mutual inspection regime for the first time in half a century.

What a «typical» warhead means on a map

Strategic warheads today mostly range from 100 to 800 kilotons — each one many times the Hiroshima bomb. The abstract numbers become concrete the moment you put one on a familiar city: try a Russian 800-kt warhead over Washington or an equivalent strike on New York, then load your own city in the simulator.

Sources

Warhead counts are estimates assembled by independent researchers from official statements, treaty data and open sources; exact numbers are state secrets and figures shift year to year. For background on how these weapons function, see how nuclear weapons work; for what a single detonation does, see effects of a nuclear explosion.