Transfers of heavy conventional weapons

The top 10 exporters of conventional arms (excluding small arms/ light weapons – SALW) 2010-15

USA US$55.006 billion

Russia US$42.404 billion

China US$9.943 billion

Germany US$ 9.467 billion

France US$ 8.932 billion

UK US$ 7.627 billion

Spain US$ 5.310 billion

Italy US$ 4.360 billion

Ukraine US$ 4.156 billion

Israel US$ 3.280 billion

The top 10 importers of conventional arms (excluding SALWs) 2010-15

India US$23.124 billion

Saudi Arabia US$11.002 billion

China US$7.726 billion

UAE US$7.156 billion

Pakistan US$6.899 billion

Australia US$6.711 billion

Turkey US$5.410 billion

US US$5.220 billion

South Korea US$5.011 billion

Singapore US$4.344 billion

[Source: SIPRI]

Between 1992 and 2015, the United States reported transfers of heavy conventional weapons to the UN Register of Conventional Arms totalling:

5,570 Battle tanks

12,208 Armoured combat vehicles

4,097 Large-calibre artillery system

1,686 Combat aircrafts

672 Attack helicopters

51 Warships

24,841 Missiles and missile launchers

The Russian Federation reported the following totals for the same period:

1,294 Battle tanks

4,052 Armoured combat vehicles

1,637 Large-calibre artillery system

664 Combat aircrafts

604 Attack helicopters

36 Warships

26,809 Missiles and missile launchers

[Source: UN Register of Conventional Arms]

Military expenditure

Total global military expenditure increased from US$1.14 trillion in 2001 to $US1.76 trillion in 2015, a rise of 50%.

Military expenditure in the Middle East has grown from $US130 billion to $US181 billion from 2008-2014

Military expenditure in the Asia/Oceania increased from $US311 billion to $US450 billion from 2008-2015

In 2015, Saudi Arabia spent the equivalent of 13.7% of its GDP on arms; in the same year South Sudan spent 13.8% of GDP on arms.

[Source: SIPRI]

Top companies

Total arms sales from the top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in the world (excluding China) rose by 104% from 2002-2013 and in 2013 stood at US$401 billion.

The top 10 arms companies on this list made profits of over US$26 billion in 2014.

[Source: SIPRI – figures in constant 2011 prices/exchange rates excluding small arms/light weapons]

Armed violence

Just under 500 people a day die from firearm homicide worldwide[Source: UNODC Global study on homicide 2013] - most in non-conflict settings. In addition, an estimated 2,000 more are injured.[Source: Small Arms Survey]

At least 2 million people around the world are living with firearm injuries in non-conflict settings; millions more suffer the profound psychological effects that firearms violence brings to individuals, families and the wider community. [Source: Small Arms Survey]

An estimated three-quarters of all small arms in the world are privately owned – approximately 650 million out of 875 million as of 2007, though the numbers are likely to have grown since then.[Source: Small Arms Survey]

41% of all homicides are committed with firearms, rising to 66% in the Americas. [Source: UNODC Global report on homicide]

Small arms

The United Nations Register of Conventional Arms registered the export of 1,808,904 firearms in 2013 - a considerable underestimate since only 25 Member States reported data on firearms. A more accurate estimate of the annual international trade in firearms is at least 4.6 million firearms. [Source: Small Arms Survey]

The number of firearms in civilian hands in the USA is approximately one per head of population.

From 2010-13 states reporting to the UNODC registered seizures of over 700,000 illicit firearms and 100 million rounds of ammunition.[Source: UNODC]

Eight million new small arms and up to 15 billion rounds of ammunition are estimated to be manufactured worldwide each year;

The authorised international trade in small arms and ammunition is estimated to be more than US$7.1 billion annually. [Source: Gunpolicy.org]

Historical Small Arms Estimates from Small Arms Survey:

35–100 million AK-pattern weapons were produced since the 1950s until 2015

8–12 million AR-15 rifles and derivatives were produced from the 1960s onwards (Bevan, 2013).

Approximately 17 million Lee Enfield-series rifles and at least 7 million G3-pattern rifles have been produced to date (Bevan, 2014).

Cluster munitions - from 2015 Cluster Munitions Monitor

At least 23 governments have used cluster munitions in conflicts around the world since the end of World War II. As of mid-2015, there were 25 countries still contaminated by cluster munition remnants.

On the adoption of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008, a total of 91 states stockpiled millions of cluster munitions containing more than 1 billion submunitions. Since then, 27 States Parties have destroyed 1.3 million cluster munitions and 160 million submunitions - 90% of submunitions declared as stockpiled by States Parties.

[Source: Cluster Munitions Monitor 2015]