Biological and Chemical Weapons

By Bastian Herre and Max Roser

Introduction Charts Cite This Work Reuse This Work

Chemical and biological weapons are organisms, toxins, and

chemicals used to cause death or harm through their poisonous
properties. Alongside nuclear weapons, biological and chemical
weapons are weapons of mass destruction because they can kill
or injure large numbers of people and cause environmental
damage.

Countries have used biological and chemical weapons in warfare

and assassinations. They have killed more than 100,000 people
and injured more than one million since World War I. But
countries have also cooperated with the goal to ban them.

Several organizations conduct detailed studies on countries’

activities on biological and chemical weapons. This page brings
this research together to present which and how many countries
have pursued, possessed, or used these weapons recently and
historically. It also looks at which countries have joined the
international treaties that seek to eliminate them.

Interactive Charts on Biological and Chemical Weapons

Current biological weapons activity, 2022 Current chemical weapons activity, 2022
Biological weapons are organisms or toxins used to cause death or harm through their poisonous properties. Chemical weapons are chemicals used to cause death or harm through their poisonous properties.

neither pursues nor possesses possesses recently used

No data allegedly pursues allegedly recently used
No data neither pursues nor possesses allegedly pursues

Data source: OWID based on ACA (2022), NTI (2022), and CNS (2008).
Data source: OWID based on ACA (2022), NTI (2022), and CNS (2008). Note: Information as of September 15, 2022. 'Allegedly' refers to situations where a country was charged by another country of pursuing or
Note: Information as of September 15, 2022. 'Allegedly' refers to situations where a country was charged by another country of pursuing using chemical weapons, but the claims have not been confirmed by the country itself or impartial observers. 'Recent' use means within the
biological weapons, but the claims have not been confirmed by the country itself or impartial observers. last decade.
OurWorldInData.org/biological-and-chemical-weapons | CC BY OurWorldInData.org/biological-and-chemical-weapons | CC BY

Current biological weapons activity Current chemical weapons activity

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Bastian Herre and Max Roser (2022) - “Biological and Chemical Weapons”
Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from:
'https://ourworldindata.org/biological-and-chemical-weapons' [Online
Resource]

BibTeX citation

@article{owid-biological-and-chemical-weapons,
author = {Bastian Herre and Max Roser},
title = {Biological and Chemical Weapons},
journal = {Our World in Data},
year = {2022},
note = {https://ourworldindata.org/biological-and-chemical-weapons}
}

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