A Global Look at Nuclear Warhead Stockpiles

One way of quantifying the proliferation of nuclear weapons is to look at the stockpiles countries have. The total inventories of nuclear warheads are even larger, as stockpiles do not include retired warheads queued for dismantlement.

This chart shows that the total number of stockpiled nuclear weapons in the world peaked in 1986. It should be remembered that the destructive power of nuclear warheads differs very significantly.