$119 billion on nuclear weapons in one year: enough to eradicate world hunger by 2030

According to a new report, countries spent an additional $16.8 billion (€14.9 billion) on their nuclear arsenals in 2025.

One hundred nineteen billion dollars (or nearly 105.5 billion euros). That is the amount the nine nuclear-armed countries spent on their nuclear arsenals in 2025. A colossal sum which, according to UN estimates, would be enough to fund the global plan to eradicate hunger by 2030 and, at the same time, to strengthen the climate resilience of many of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

This is revealed in the latest report fromthe International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). According to this organization, winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, nuclear-armed states have increased their spending by 19% compared to the previous year, allocating an additional $16.8 billion to fuel a new arms race.

This sharp increase perfectly mirrors data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). According to the organization, even though the total number of nuclear warheads worldwide has decreased slightly (12,187 units as of early 2026), the number of warheads ready for immediate deployment has risen to 9,745.

The report

According to the report, this escalation is led by the United States. In 2025 alone, it invested $69.2 billion in nuclear weapons—more than the combined spending of all other nuclear-armed countries.

Next are:

• China;
• the United Kingdom;
• Russia;
• while France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea continue to ramp up their military programs.

This means that every minute, more than $226,000 (€200,000) is allocated to weapons capable of causing catastrophic destruction.

And this is not an expense that is likely to decrease. Arsenal modernization programs tie up public resources for decades. In the United States, for example, the new Sentinel missile system will remain operational well beyond the end of the century and will require investments that, over the next decade, could approach $1 trillion (€887 billion).

These figures make the gap between international policy priorities and the global emergencies we face even more glaring. For, as researchers point out, a single day’s worth of global spending on nuclear weapons would be enough to provide food and food aid to more than two million people.

Ultimately, these figures tell a story far beyond a mere budget line item. They describe a world that continues to invest in its capacity to destroy rather than in its capacity to protect. And as hunger, inequality, and the climate crisis worsen, the $119 billion spent in a single year on nuclear arsenals serves as a reminder that global crises stem not only from a lack of resources, but above all from the choices we make about how to use them.