Estimated explosive power of nuclear weapons deliverable in first strike
What you should know about this indicator
- A "megaton" is the explosive energy released by one million tons of TNT. For comparison, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 0.015 and 0.021 megatons, respectively.
- An equivalent megaton is a way of making the explosive energy of different warheads comparable. It weighs small warheads — in this case those with at most one megaton — more than large ones, because they are relatively more destructive.
- The exact number of countries' warheads is secret, and the estimates are based on publicly available information, historical records, and experts' estimates.
- The warheads included here are strategic ones — those designed for use away from the battlefield, such as against military bases, arms industries, or infrastructure.
- Only those strategic warheads are included that could be deployed — those that could be carried by ballistic missiles, bombers, and submarines in one strike.
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Sources and processing
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“Data Page: Estimated explosive power of nuclear weapons deliverable in first strike”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre, Pablo Rosado, Max Roser and Joe Hasell (2024) - “Nuclear Weapons”. Data adapted from Suh. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/estimated-megatons-of-nuclear-weapons-deliverable-in-first-strike [online resource]How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
Suh - The Strategic Nuclear Forces Dataset v2.0 (2023) – with major processing by Our World in DataFull citation
Suh - The Strategic Nuclear Forces Dataset v2.0 (2023) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Estimated explosive power of nuclear weapons deliverable in first strike” [dataset]. Suh, “The Strategic Nuclear Forces Dataset v2.0” [original data]. Retrieved July 27, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/estimated-megatons-of-nuclear-weapons-deliverable-in-first-strike