Here’s what you need to know:
Country Spending in 2022
The United States: $43.7 billion, $83,143/ minute
China: $11.7 billion, $22,219/ minute
Russia: $9.6 billion, $18,228/ minute
The United Kingdom: $6.8 billion, $12,975/ minute
France: $5.6 billion, $10,603/ minute
India: $2.7 billion, $5,181/ minute
Israel: $1.2 billion, $2,226/ minute
Pakistan: $1 billion, $1,967/ minute
North Korea: $589 million, $1,221/ minute
It’s $2.5 billion more than in 2021 or nearly $5,000 more per minute. The United States spent more than all of the other nuclear armed states combined, $43.7 billion. Russia spent 22% of what the U.S. did, at $9.6 billion, and China spent just over a quarter of the U.S. total, at $11.7 billion.
Of that, companies got about 35% of all spending, and new nuclear weapon related contracts that were awarded in 2022 were at least $15.9 billion.
The ten think tanks featured in the report accepted between $22 and $36 million in the last reported year from companies producing nuclear weapons, states possessing nuclear weapons, and countries in self-described nuclear alliances.
2022 Nuclear weapons spending for the entire year could have:
- Covered 37% of climate change adaptation costs for developing countries or
- Set up 16 million homes with solar power or
- Paid the annual salary of 740 thousand nurses
Nuclear weapons spending per minute in 2022 could have:
- Provided clean water sanitation for 2.4 thousand people or
- Paid for 3.9 thousand COVID vaccines or
- Hired three high-school science teachers or
- Paid for 20 U.S. public housing units
