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In 2024, the nine nuclear-armed states spent more than $100 billion or $190,151 per minute - on their nuclear arsenals – an increase of 11% from the previous year, according to ICAN’s new report Hidden Costs: Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2024.
Full Report | Executive Summary
Spending by the nuclear armed states – China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK and US – increased by nearly $10 billion from 2023 with the private sector earning at least $42.5 billion from their nuclear weapons contracts.
Who spent what in 2024?
The United States again spent more than all of the other nuclear armed states combined: $56.8 billion. China was the second largest spender at $12.5 billion, less than a quarter of U.S. spending. The third largest amount, $10.4 billion, or 10% of the total figure, was spent by the UK.
Over the past five years, global spending on nuclear weapons has gone up by just over 32% from $68 billion to $100 billion.
Democratic deficit
The report also looked into the costs incurred by the countries that host other states’ nuclear weapons and found that this information is largely kept hidden from citizens and legislators, avoiding democratic scrutiny.
One of the report’s co-authors, Alicia Sanders-Zakre commented:“It’s an affront to democracy that citizens and lawmakers in countries that boast of their democratic credentials are not allowed to know that nuclear weapons from other countries are based on their soil or how much of their taxes is being spent on them.”
What could that $100 billion have paid for instead?
This money is being wasted given the nuclear-armed states agree a nuclear war can never be won and should never be fought. It is also diverting resources from real human priorities. $100 billion could have been used to fund measures to address the threats posed to our security by climate change and the loss of animal and plant species, or to provide funding for improving essential public goods, such as healthcare, housing and education.
At a time when the United Nations is grappling with deep cuts to its funding, the amount these nine countries spent on their nuclear arsenals in 2024 would have paid the UN budget almost 28 times over.
Who profits from nuclear weapons?
There are at least $463 billion in ongoing nuclear weapons contracts, some of which do not expire for decades. In 2024, at least $20 billion in new nuclear weapon contracts were awarded. Many of the companies that benefited from this largesse invested heavily in lobbying governments, spending $128 million on those efforts in the US and France, the two countries for which data is available.
ICAN’s Programme Coordinator and co-author of the report, Susi Snyder said: “The problem of nuclear weapons is one that can be solved, and doing so means understanding the vested interests fiercely defending the option for nine countries to indiscriminately murder civilians.”
With two major wars involving nuclear-armed states in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as nuclear tensions escalating between India and Pakistan and on the Korean Peninsula, the risk that nuclear weapons could be used in combat is widely regarded as the highest it has been since the Cold War and possibly ever. In response, the nuclear-armed states are clinging to the doctrine of deterrence which is based on brinkmanship and the threat to use nuclear weapons, exacerbating the risk of conflict.
The good news is that a majority of countries have rejected this immoral approach. 98 states supported by over 700 civil society organisations, have either signed, ratified or directly acceded to the UN Nuclear Ban treaty, the TPNW that came into force four years ago and more are expected to follow suit this year.
This year, as we commemorate those who have been killed and harmed by the first use of nuclear weapons in New Mexico, Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago, ICAN says 80 years is enough – it is time to eliminate nuclear weapons before they eliminate us!