Spending on Nuclear Weapons: US$105 Billion a Year; US$300 Million a Day, US$12 Million an Hour

Human Wrongs Watch As hundreds of millions of people across the globe go hungry, the nuclear-armed nations spend close to US$300 million a day on their nuclear forces. (ICAN)* Source: ICAN-International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons The production, maintenance and modernization of nuclear forces diverts vast public resources away from health care, education, climate change mitigation, disaster relief, development assistance and other vital services. Globally, annual expenditure on nuclear weapons is estimated at US$105 billion – or $12 million an hour. The World Bank forecast in 2002 that an annual investment of just US$40–60 billion, or roughly half the amount currently spent on nuclear weapons, would be enough to meet the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals on poverty alleviation by the target date of 2015. Nuclear weapons spending in 2010 was more than twice the official development assistance provided to Africa and equal to the gross domestic product of Bangladesh, a nation of some 160 million people. The Office for Disarmament Affairs – the principal UN body responsible for advancing a nuclear-weapon-free world – has an annual budget of $10 million, which is less than the amount spent on nuclear weapons every hour. Country 2010 spending 2011 spending United States $55.6bn $61.3bn Russia $9.7bn $14.8bn China $6.8bn $7.6bn France $5.9bn $6.0bn United Kingdom $4.5bn $5.5bn India $4.1bn $4.9bn Israel $1.9bn $1.9bn Pakistan $1.8bn $2.2bn North Korea $0.7bn $0.7bn Total $91.0bn $104.9bn Source: Global Zero.



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