The number of nuclear arsenals is increasing in the world, just like the number of new nuclear weapon types under development.
Geopolitical tensions have led to nuclear weapons as a deterrent method gaining increased significance, according to the peace research institute Sipri.
The world's nuclear-weapon states are continuing to modernise their arsenals. The countries have also deployed new weapon systems in 2023, either nuclear-armed or capable of carrying nuclear weapons, shows a report from Sipri.
According to the analysis, the total number of warheads in the world in January this year was 12,121, of which 9,585 were in military stockpiles ready for use by nuclear-weapon states, the USA, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel.
Russia and the USA together have almost 90 per cent of all the world's nuclear weapons.
2,100 of the deployed warheads are on high alert, mounted on missiles. This mainly concerns Russian and American warheads, but China is also believed to have some warheads on high alert.
"Although the total number of warheads continues to decrease as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, we can unfortunately see increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads every year," says Sipri chief Dan Smith in a press release.
"The trend is likely to continue and probably escalate over the next few years, and it is extremely worrying."
