Countries with nuclear weapons
The nine countries with nuclear weapons: the five the non-proliferation treaty recognises, the four outside it, and the countries that built or inherited weapons and gave them up.
9 countriesAs of September 20261 sourceSuggest a correction
Nine countries have nuclear weapons. Eight have said so and tested them. The ninth, Israel, has never confirmed or denied that it has them, but is widely believed to.
The 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) splits them in two. It recognises the five countries that had tested a weapon before 1967 as nuclear-weapon states, and nearly every other country has joined it and promised not to build them. The other four never joined, or left.
Recognised by the NPT5
The five nuclear-weapon states named by the treaty, which are also the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
United StatesThe first country to test a nuclear weapon, the Trinity test in New Mexico on 16 July 1945. The only country to have used them in war, at Hiroshima and Nagasaki the following month.
RussiaThe Soviet Union first tested a weapon on 29 August 1949. Russia inherited its arsenal, and it and the United States hold nearly all the world’s nuclear warheads between them.
United KingdomFirst tested on 3 October 1952, off the coast of Western Australia.
FranceFirst tested on 13 February 1960, in the Algerian Sahara.
ChinaFirst tested on 16 October 1964, at Lop Nur in Xinjiang.
Outside the NPT4
IndiaCarried out a test it called peaceful in 1974, and declared itself a nuclear power after a series of tests in May 1998. It has never joined the NPT.
PakistanAnswered India’s tests with tests of its own later in May 1998. It has never joined the NPT either.
North KoreaAnnounced it was leaving the NPT in 2003, and first tested a weapon on 9 October 2006.
IsraelHas never joined the NPT, and has never confirmed or denied that it has nuclear weapons, a policy known as nuclear ambiguity.
Close calls
South Africa
South Africa is the only country to build its own nuclear weapons and then give them up. It completed six, dismantled them before the end of apartheid, and joined the NPT in 1991.
Inherited, then handed back
When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Soviet nuclear weapons were left in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. All three transferred them to Russia during the 1990s and joined the NPT as countries without nuclear weapons.
Weapons hosted, not owned
Under NATO’s nuclear sharing, American nuclear weapons are reported to be stationed in several European member countries. They stay under US control, so those countries aren’t counted as nuclear powers.
More country lists
- Amazon rainforest countries
- Andean countries
- Arab League member states
- Arctic Ocean countries
- ASEAN member countries
- Atlantic Ocean countries
- Baltic Sea countries
- Black Sea countries
- BRICS member countries
- Caribbean Sea countries
- Commonwealth member countries
- Countries in the Arctic Circle
- Countries in the European Union
- Countries of the former Yugoslavia
- Countries on the Equator
- Countries that drive on the left
- Countries that use the euro
- Countries with a monarch
- Danube countries
- FIFA World Cup host countries
- Former Soviet republics
- G20 member countries
- Indian Ocean countries
- Island nations
- Landlocked countries
- Mediterranean countries
- Mekong countries
- NATO member countries
- OECD member countries
- OPEC member countries
- Pacific Ocean countries
- Persian Gulf countries
- Red Sea countries
- Sahara Desert countries
- Schengen Area countries
- Summer Olympics host countries
- Transcontinental countries
- Winter Olympics host countries
Sources
- [1]Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance · Arms Control Association
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.