China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than any other country on the globe, according to a recently published report.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) launched its annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament, and international security on Monday.
The SIPRI Yearbook 2025 states that a “dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are severely weakened.”
SIPRI Yearbook 2025 says that nearly all nuclear-armed states continued intensive nuclear modernization programs in 2024, upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions.
It states that out of a total global inventory of an estimated 12,241 warheads in January 2025, about 9,614 were in military stockpiles for potential use.
Nuclear weapons deployed globally
It further says that an estimated 3,912 of these warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft, and the rest were in central storage.
Around 2100 of the deployed warheads were kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles.
“Nearly all of these warheads belonged to Russia or the USA, but China may now keep some warheads on missiles during peacetime,” the report says.
“The era of reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which had lasted since the end of the Cold War, is coming to an end,” said Hans M. Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program and Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
“Instead, we see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric, and the abandonment of arms control agreements.”
As per the report, Russia has the largest inventory of nuclear warheads – 5,459 – in the world. The USA closely follows it with 5,177 nuclear warheads. These two countries together possess around 90 percent of all nuclear weapons.
Their number of usable warheads seems to have stayed relatively stable in 2024, but both have implemented extensive modernization programs that could increase the size and diversity of their arsenals in the future, as per the SIPRI Yearbook 2025.
China boosting arsenal at fast pace
The Swedish think tank’s report further says that “China could potentially have at least as many ICBMs as either Russia or the USA by the turn of the decade, although its stockpile of nuclear warheads is still expected to remain much smaller than the stockpiles of either of those two countries.”
The report says that China now has at least 600 nuclear warheads, up from the 500 it had last year. It is a 20 percent jump, the same as what was witnessed last year.
The country has a maximum projected number of 1500 warheads by 2035; the report says that even if it reaches this number, it will still amount to “only about one-third of each of the current Russian and US nuclear stockpiles.”
China’s ally, North Korea, also continues to prioritize its military nuclear program, and it has now assembled around 50 warheads. Further, it possesses enough fissile material to produce up to 40 more warheads, accelerating the production of further fissile material.
In 2024, South Korea warned that Pyongyang was in the final stages of developing a tactical nuclear weapon.
France and the UK have the same 290 and 225 nuclear warheads in their arsenal, the same as last year. India’s arsenal marginally increased to 180 nuclear warheads, while Pakistan’s still stands at 170, according to the report.
Israel, which does not acknowledge having nuclear weapons in its arsenal, is thought to have 90 warheads.
