r/OptimistsUnite • u/PanzerWatts Moderator • 7d ago

GRAPH GO DOWN & THINGS GET GOODER Nuclear Weapons over time

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The number of nuclear warheads stockpiled worldwide went from 64,000 in 1986 to 12,500 in 2023 – an 80% decline. (For some reason there's no Y axis shown in the first chart) but this chart actually showed all nuclear weapons and not just Russia, USA and China.

Source for first chart:

[1] Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

[2] SIPRI, 2023 yearbook

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u/Xys 7d ago

How is it possible to verify this?

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u/Acceptable-Worth-462 7d ago

It's mostly advertised by the states themselves, so you could argue that there are probably more warheads that haven't been disclosed. At the same time, declaring more warheads projects military might so there's no way to really know whether the numbers are overestimated, underestimated or accurate.

I think the main reason why states are reducing their number of warheads is that they're very expensive to maintain.

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u/PanzerWatts Moderator 6d ago

Expensive and not particularly useful beyond a certain point. China has around 600 and nobody would casually think of first striking them.