Below is a list of countries by population from the Wikipedia plus an estimate of the number of A-bombs those countries possess, also from Wikipedia. The population of a given country is then divided by the total number of A-bombs that country is reported to possess. This gives a rough estimate of the number of a given nation’s people represented by one bomb. The resultant figure ranges widely, with every sixteen thousand Russians being represented by one A-bomb, whereas the British, with a population about half the size of Russia and who have had the bomb just as long, have only one bomb for every three hundred thousand citizens or about one twentieth as many. Some, if not most, of these A-bombs may be H-bombs, which are one thousand times more powerful, but I have no way of knowing what any given country possesses so I let it all be called A-bombs.
A huge number of bombs per population represents a potentially offensive posture by that nation and a small but substantial number represents a more defensive posture. No sane leader is going to attack a country with one hundred deliverable A-bombs even if they have thousands more in reserve themselves.
The huge number of A-bombs worldwide, listed on the chart, is based on the mid 1960s stockpiles which were trimmed down with the SALT agreements, but one must suspect that they could be reassembled in a few days if the country actually thought it was about to be attacked. The actual numbers of bombs possessed by any country is a Top Secret and may not even be known with precision even by the head of state of the country possessing them. Pakistan’s bombs, for example, were reportedly under exclusive control of their military at one time. See, The Seventh Decade p. 45 by Jonathan Schell where President Bhutto was informed by the American CIA director of her own countries bombs. It is worrisome that even smaller countries feel they need these weapons and in large numbers relative to their size. Does a small country such as Israel which is 1/200th the size of China need the same Earth destroying weapons and if so why not another country 1/200 the size of that one. That would be a town sized country of only 40,000 people, like Monaco. Who is to say what is needed? After all, every nation has potential enemies. When every one of the top 100 countries has A-bombs what is the chance that one country by accident might set off one of their bombs and start a major war?
Therefore, we humans if we have a fragment of forethought should prepare for the Doomsday eventuality and make Earth Arks, some Life Havens, some Gene Barrels and a South Pole seed bank. Even simple mistakes and random errors will bring about a conflict and precipitate a Doomsday sooner or later.
| Country | Population | Bombs | Nationals / bomb | Humans / bomb | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | 6,737,600,000 | 20-60,000 | 112,293 | 112,293 | |
| 1 | 1,327,300,000 | 160-400 | 3,118,250 | 16,844,000 | |
| 2 | 1,140,720,000 | 100-400 | 2,851,800 | 16,844,000 | |
| 3 | 305,682,000 | 5,535 | 55,227 | 1,217,271 | |
| 4 | 228,780,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 5 | 188,118,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 6 | 164,880,000 | ~60 | 2,748,000 | 112,283,000 | |
| 7 | 158,665,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 8 | 148,093,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 9 | 141,900,000 | 8,800 | 16,125 | 765,636 | |
| 10 | 127,690,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 11 | 106,682,500 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 12 | 90,457,200 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 13 | 87,375,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 14 | 82,169,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 15 | 79,221,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 16 | 75,549,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 17 | 70,586,256 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 18 | 70,495,782 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 19 | 64,473,140 | 350 | 184,209 | 19,250,285 | |
| 20 | 63,038,247 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 21 | 62,636,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 22 | 61,186,000 | 200 | 305,930 | 33,688,000 | |
| 23 | 59,619,290 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 24 | 48,798,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 25 | 48,224,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 26 | 47,850,700 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 27 | 46,191,022 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 28 | 46,063,500 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 29 | 44,603,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 30 | 40,454,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 31 | 39,745,613 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 32 | 38,560,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 33 | 38,115,967 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 34 | 37,538,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 35 | 33,858,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 36 | 33,432,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 37 | 31,224,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 38 | 30,884,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 39 | 28,993,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 40 | 28,750,770 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 41 | 28,196,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 42 | 28,018,018 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 43 | 27,730,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 44 | 27,372,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 45 | 27,145,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 46 | 24,735,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 47 | 23,790,000 | 10 | 2,379,000 | 673,760,000 | |
| 48 | 23,478,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 49 | 23,007,007 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 50 | 22,389,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 51 | 21,528,600 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 52 | 21,487,170 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 53 | 21,397,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 54 | 19,929,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 55 | 19,683,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 56 | 19,299,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 57 | 19,262,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 58 | 18,549,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 59 | 17,024,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 60 | 16,827,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 61 | 16,468,072 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 62 | 15,422,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 63 | 14,784,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 64 | 14,226,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 65 | 13,925,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 66 | 13,867,761 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 67 | 13,388,910 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 68 | 13,354,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 69 | 13,349,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 70 | 12,379,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 71 | 12,337,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 72 | 11,922,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 73 | 11,268,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 74 | 11,215,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 75 | 10,781,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 76 | 10,666,866 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 77 | 10,617,600 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 78 | 10,424,926 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 79 | 10,327,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 80 | 10,035,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 81 | 9,527,100 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 82 | 9,760,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 83 | 9,725,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 84 | 9,690,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 85 | 9,598,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 86 | 9,525,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 87 | 9,370,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 88 | 9,242,595 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 89 | 9,033,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 90 | 8,699,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 91 | 8,508,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 92 | 8,629,900 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 93 | 8,340,924 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 94 | 7,647,600 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 95 | 7,640,238 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 96 | 7,337,000 | 100-200 | 36,685 | 33,688,000 | |
| 97 | 7,106,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| — | 6,985,260 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 98 | 6,857,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 99 | 6,736,000 | 0 | 0 | - | |
| 100 | 6,585,000 | 0 | 0 | - |
In a worst case scenario it could be assumed that the maximum likely number of bombs 60,000 were each of the 1 Megaton size (some are much large but most are much smaller) and that would mean there are approximately 60,000 Megatons of TNT equivalent already prepared for humanities destruction.
The 6,800,000,000 world population divided by 60,000,000,000 tons of TNT means your share, dear reader, equals 0.1133 Tons of TNT or to make it into pounds 0.1133 times 2000 equals 226.6 pounds (about 100 Kilograms) of TNT set aside for your destruction. That guess is probably accurate to a decimal point either way. Perhaps you would consider the Earth Ark project as a less crazy way to invest your tax dollar than making more A-bombs.

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Filed under: policy, psychology, survival | Tagged: A-Bombs, Atomic Bombs, H-Bombs, How many bombs is enough, Nations with bombs

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