Even if the perception is often different, the number of nuclear weapons is steadily declining. While the nuclear powers still had an arsenal of around 70,000 nuclear warheads in the mid-1980s, this figure had fallen by four-fifths by the previous year. At the beginning of 2017, it was estimated that nine countries (USA, Russia, UK, China, Pakistan, India, France, North Korea and Israel) possessed a total of 14,935 nuclear weapons. Of these, Russia (7,000) and the USA (6,800) together hold more than 93%.
