WikipediaExtracts:List of states with nuclear weapons
Extracted from Wikipedia --
Nine sovereign states are generally understood to possess nuclear weapons, though only eight formally acknowledge possessing them. Five are considered to be nuclear-weapon states (NWS) under the terms of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In order of acquisition of nuclear weapons, these are the United States, Russia (the successor of the former Soviet Union), the United Kingdom, France, and China.
Other states that have declared nuclear weapons possession are India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Since the NPT entered into force in 1970, these three states were not parties to the Treaty and have conducted overt nuclear tests. North Korea had been a party to the NPT but withdrew in 2003.
Israel is also generally understood to have nuclear weapons, but does not acknowledge it, maintaining a policy of deliberate ambiguity. Israel is estimated to possess somewhere between 90 and 300 nuclear warheads. One possible motivation for nuclear ambiguity is deterrence with minimum political friction.
States that formerly possessed nuclear weapons are South Africa, which developed nuclear weapons but then disassembled its arsenal before joining the NPT, and the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, whose weapons were transferred to Russia.
According to the Federation of American Scientists there are approximately 3,904 active nuclear warheads and 12,331 total nuclear warheads in the world as of 2025. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated in 2024 that the total number of nuclear warheads acquired by nuclear states reached 12,121. Approximately 9,585 are kept with military stockpiles. About 3,904 warheads are deployed with operational forces. 2,100 warheads, which are primarily from Russia and the United States, are maintained for high operational alerts.
