Nuclear Weapons Spending and its Staggering Opportunity Costs

The opportunity cost of nuclear weapons spending is staggering. In ICAN’s recently released “Premeditated: Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2025” report, we juxtaposed astronomical increases in nuclear weapons spending and a humanitarian landscape that is struggling with budget cuts.

In 2025, nuclear-armed states spent a record $119 billion on nuclear arms. Meanwhile, more than 22 million people, including more than 5 million children, could die by 2030 if drastic budget cuts continue in the humanitarian sector, according to a 2025 Lancet study. The United States in particular hiked up its spending by 22% in 2025, an immense increase of $12.4 billion. The U.S. assessed contribution to the United Nations in 2025, by comparison, was a meager $827 million—7% of what the United States spent on its nuclear weapons. In fact, the United States could have paid the entire 2025 UN budget 18 times over with what it spent on nuclear weapons in one year.

The other two top nuclear weapon spenders in 2025 were China, at $13.5 billion (¥96.5 billion), and the United Kingdom, at $12.6 billion (£9.6 billion). 2025 Chinese nuclear weapon spending could pay the WHO budget for health emergencies 11 times over. The entire 2024-2025 WHO budget was about 50% of Chinese nuclear weapon spending in 2025. The UK spent the least it has on foreign aid in 17 years, while its nuclear weapons spending soared by 17%, an increase of $1.8 billion (£1.4 billion). With the amount the UK spent on its nuclear weapons in 2025, it could have given nearly £30 every week to each of the 6.3 million UK citizens, including more than two million children, that don’t have enough to eat.

As shocking as one year of nuclear weapons spending may be, it doesn’t tell the full story. Nuclear weapons systems take years to build, from when they are first approved, to their research and design, construction and deployment, representing decades of spending planned well into the future. France, the United Kingdom and the United States have documented multi-year nuclear weapons spending plans that amount to hundreds of billions of dollars over the next ten years—funds that will be sorely needed for humanitarian causes.

In the United States alone, the Congressional Budget Office projects the United States will spend nearly $1 trillion on its nuclear weapons from 2025-2034. And based on the operational time frame of previous nuclear weapons systems, ICAN’s research indicates that all nuclear-armed states can be expected to maintain their current nuclear weapons systems, or those currently under development, through at least the middle of this century or even into the next century.

But just because nuclear-armed states have current plans to squander their budgets on weapons of mass destruction instead of real human security needs doesn’t mean that it will always be so. These nine nuclear-armed states are the global minority—99 countries have joined the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and have condemned the “continued expenditure of vast financial resources for the modernization and expansion of nuclear weapons” as “indefensible.” Financial institutions have forsworn nuclear weapons investments, including a group of 131 institutional investors, representing over four trillion US dollars in assets under management.

Thousands of elected representatives in nuclear-armed and allied states have already signed ICAN’s parliamentary pledge to call on their government to join the TPNW. Cities around the world, including capitals like Paris, Washington, D.C. and  Berlin, have called on their governments to join the TPNW through the ICAN cities appeal. 

Whether you’re an investor, a member of a financial institution, an activist, or someone looking to learn more and make an impact, know that  the work to cut the nuclear weapons industry’s financial ties is collaborative work. Citizens, politicians and bankers can sit by as the status quo persists with the continued development and maintenance of nuclear weapons. Or, using concrete figures, rigorous research, and collective advocacy, we can demand these weapons be dismantled and direct these exorbitant sums to the betterment of human lives across the globe.