Civilian Firearms
Civilian Firearms by country
Commentary
Notable countries
The lowest reported civilian firearms rates are 0 per 100 people in Indonesia, Nauru, Taiwan, and Vatican City, with South Korea and Solomon Islands close behind at 0.2. At the other extreme, the United States stands out sharply at 120.5 per 100 people, far above every other country; Yemen is next at 52.8, while Montenegro and Serbia are both at 39.1. A notable surprise is that several high-income countries, including Canada (34.7), Finland (32.4), and Iceland (31.7), appear among the highest-ownership group.
Regional trends
By continent, Europe has the highest average at 16.89 firearms per 100 people, followed by North America at 13.7 and South America at 12.16. Asia sits below the global mean at 7.948, while Oceania averages 4.871 and Africa has the lowest regional average at 3.809. Even so, regional averages can mask large internal differences, especially in North America and Asia, where individual countries range from near zero to very high levels.
Data source
The data come from the Small Arms Survey 2017 and are measured as civilian firearms per 100 people. Coverage includes 197 countries. Because this is a country-level ownership rate, it shows prevalence rather than how firearms are distributed within each society.
Interpretation
Higher values mean more civilian firearms relative to population, so lower values are better on this metric. The global mean is 9.61 per 100 people, but the very high figure for the United States and elevated levels in a smaller set of countries show that ownership is highly uneven across the world. Overall, most of the lowest rates are clustered near zero, while the highest rates are concentrated in a limited number of countries, suggesting strong national differences rather than a uniform regional pattern.