Nuclear weapon mentions in online press worldwide 2017-2024

Online news coverage of nuclear weapons and the nuclear threat significantly increased in March 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine one month prior. In total over the course of 2022, over 821,000 online articles were published in 65 languages across the globe mentioning the word "war" in combination with "nuclear." In 2023, that figure decreased to approximately 424,700. In February 2023, Russia suspended its participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States.

However, the number of articles on the topic increased not only due to the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. In the fall of 2022, global media widely covered tests of nuclear-capable missiles by North Korea. At the beginning of the observed period, the article count was higher due to the coverage of tensions between North Korea and the United States over the former's nuclear program as well as the United States' withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran nuclear deal, in 2018.