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The number of nuclear weapons deployed and ready for use has increased significantly, raising concerns about global security amid rising conflicts, according to a new monitoring report.
The annual Nuclear Weapons Ban Monitor report, published by Norwegian People's Aid in cooperation with the Federation of American Scientists, described the trend as a “concerning development.”
The report said the world’s nine nuclear-armed states possessed a combined total of 12,187 warheads at the start of the year, down from more than 70,000 during the Cold War peak in the mid-1980s and 144 fewer than in early 2025.
However, the number of nuclear weapons ready for immediate use has been rising steadily in recent years, reaching an estimated 9,745 in 2025, an increase of 141 warheads from the previous year.
Of these, 4,012 warheads, or about 40%, were deployed on ballistic missiles in silos, mobile launchers, submarines or bomber bases, marking an increase of 108 from 2024.
The report said this amounts to the equivalent of 135,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs, noting that a single atomic bomb killed 140,000 people in 1945.
Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said the continued rise in deployed warheads increases the risks of escalation, miscalculation and accidental use.
“This make the world more dangerous for us all,” he said.
The report highlighted that the trend comes amid escalating conflicts in Europe, Asia and the Middle East involving nuclear-armed states.
It also pointed to what it described as the erosion of long-standing disarmament and arms control frameworks, including the expiration last month of the New START treaty between Russia and the U.S.
Raymond Johansen, head of Norwegian People’s Aid, said the situation reflects more than a renewed arms race.
“What we are witnessing is more than a new arms race,” he said. “It is a reversal of hard-won constraints on nuclear dangers.”
The report said the international community is increasingly divided on nuclear weapons.
By the end of 2025, 99 countries had joined the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), either as signatories or parties, after it was negotiated at the United Nations in 2017.
At the same time, nuclear-armed states have not joined the treaty and are continuing to modernize and expand their arsenals.
The report said 33 countries under nuclear “umbrella” arrangements actively support such policies, while a total of 47 countries oppose the treaty, with about three-quarters of them located in Europe.
Melissa Parke, head of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, said countries relying on nuclear deterrence should reconsider their positions.
“The states that claim nuclear weapons give them security, particularly in Europe, need to realise there is no shelter to be had under a nuclear umbrella,” she said.
“They must join the global majority supporting total nuclear disarmament.”
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