Nuclear Weapon Spending on the Rise

Global spending on nuclear weapons rose by 13.4 percent in 2023. As a newly released report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) shows, the United States instigated the largest proportional annual increase with a rise of almost 18 percent, closely followed by the United Kingdom with 17.1 percent.

In terms of spending, the U.S. had the largest outlay last year by some margin: $51.5 billion, compared to the second highest total of $11.9 billion in China. The total global spend equated to an estimated $91.4 billion, the equivalent of $173,884 every minute. 2023 wasn't a freak year, either, but rather the continuation of a trend. From 2019 to 2023, global spending rose by 34 percent. As reported by ICAN, a cumulative $387 billion was spent to build and maintain nuclear weapons over this five year period.