India boosts nuclear stockpile to 180, China races ahead with 600 warheads

India now possesses 180 nuclear warheads, up from 172 in 2024, while China has surged ahead to 600, adding 100 in a year. SIPRI warns of global arsenal growth and rising nuclear conflict risks.

Photo for representation purpose

Image Credit: Getty

New Delhi: India has slightly increased its nuclear warheads to 180 in 2025 from 172 in 2024 while the China’s arsenal has been growing faster than any other country and has currently expanded to 600, a rise of 100 warheads in 2025, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its new yearbook which was released on Monday.

However, Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal stands still at 170. There has been no change observed.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's report

In its yearbook “state of armaments, disarmament and international security”, the SIPRI said: “India’s new ‘canisterized’ missiles, which can be transported with mated warheads, may be capable of carrying nuclear warheads during peacetime, and possibly even multiple warheads on each missile, once they become operational.”

While Pakistan’s current nuclear warheads stand still, the SIPRI said Islamabad accumulate fissile material in 2024 which suggest that its nuclear arsenal might expand over the coming decade.

“In early 2025 tensions between India and Pakistan briefly spilled over into armed conflict.”

“The combination of strikes on nuclear-related military infrastructure and third-party disinformation risked turning a conventional conflict into a nuclear crisis,” said Matt Korda, Associate Senior Researcher with SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme and Associate Director for the Nuclear Information Project at FAS.

“This should act as a stark warning for states seeking to increase their reliance on nuclear weapons.”

Countries with nuclear warheads

As of now, there are nine countries – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel, which are armed with nuclear warheads, continued intensive nuclear modernization programmes in 2024 and upgraded their existing weapons and adding newer versions.

Of the total global inventory of an estimated 12 241 warheads in January 2025, about 9614 were in military stockpiles for potential use.

Russia, US have the most nuclear warheads

As per the SIPRI report, Russia and the US have the largest warheads among the nine nuclear-armed states with 5,459 and 5,177, respectively.

Aiming to strengthen its nuclear triad, India had commissioned its second indigenous nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, INS Arighaat, at Visakhapatnam in 2024.

India’s third nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, Aridaman or S-4, is expected to be commissioned later next year, followed by a fourth SSBN codenamed S-4.

“The era of reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which had lasted since the end of the cold war, is coming to an end,” said Hans M. Kristensen, Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme and Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). “Instead, we see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric and the abandonment of arms control agreements.”