The United States has 120.5 firearms per 100 people — more guns than people, and nearly double the rate of the second-placed country. Here's a data-driven guide to gun ownership laws around the world and what the numbers actually tell us.
The United States has 120.5 firearms per 100 people — more guns than people, and nearly double the rate of the second-placed country. Here’s a data-driven guide to gun ownership laws around the world and what the numbers actually tell us.
The famous quote “guns don’t kill people, people do” may be the opening line to the ongoing dispute about whether civilians should have the right to bear arms. It is one of the most politically divisive questions in domestic policy — and one of the most statistically striking when you look at the global data. Gun ownership varies enormously between countries, as do gun-related death rates. Understanding both sets of numbers is the starting point for any honest conversation about the subject.
Gun Ownership by Country — The Data
The most comprehensive global dataset on civilian gun ownership is the Small Arms Survey, last updated with full country data in 2017 and still the benchmark reference for international comparisons. The numbers are striking — the United States is in a category of its own, with more civilian-owned firearms per person than any other country in the world, and nearly double the rate of the second-placed nation.
Guns per 100 people — top countries
“The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population but holds approximately 46% of the world’s civilian-owned firearms. No other country is close.”
Where Are Guns Legal? A Country-by-Country Guide
| Country | Legal status | Key rules |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Constitutional Right | Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms. Regulations vary by state — some require background checks and permits; others are minimal. No federal licence required to own most firearms. |
| Switzerland | Restricted | Permit required to purchase. Military service means many households have rifles. Carrying in public is tightly controlled. One of Europe’s highest ownership rates but low gun violence. |
| Canada | Restricted | Licence required. Handguns effectively banned for civilians since 2022. Long guns permitted with licence. Background checks mandatory. |
| Germany | Restricted | Strict licensing system. Owners must demonstrate need, pass psychological assessment, and store weapons securely. Semi-automatic firearms heavily restricted. |
| Australia | Restricted | National buyback after 1996 Port Arthur massacre removed most semi-automatic weapons. Licence and genuine reason required. No self-defence as a valid reason in most states. |
| UK | Restricted | Handguns banned since 1997. Shotguns and rifles permitted with licence and good reason. One of the lowest ownership rates in the developed world. |
| France | Restricted | Licence required based on category of firearm. Sport shooting and hunting permitted. Carrying in public prohibited for civilians. |
| Israel | Restricted | Licence required with genuine need demonstrated. Military service means many citizens have experience with firearms. Ownership rates have risen since October 7, 2023. |
| Mexico | Restricted | Constitutional right but heavily regulated in practice. Only one legal gun shop in the country. Purchasing process is lengthy. Despite this, illegal firearms are widespread. |
| Japan | Near ban | Extremely strict. Applicants must pass written tests, mental health checks, drug tests, and background checks. Only shotguns and air rifles permitted. Essentially no civilian handgun ownership. |
| China | Near ban | Civilian ownership of firearms almost entirely prohibited. One of the lowest per-capita ownership rates in the world at 3.6 per 100 people. |
| North Korea | Banned | Complete ban on civilian gun ownership. One of only two countries in the world with an outright prohibition. |
The United States — A Category of Its Own
No country in the world comes close to the United States in civilian gun ownership. With approximately 120.5 firearms per 100 people — meaning more guns than people — the US is a genuine outlier. An estimated 500 million firearms are now in civilian hands in the US, up from 393 million in 2017, driven by elevated purchasing during 2020–2022. In 2025, 42% of Americans reported having a gun in their home.
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution — “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” — is the legal foundation for this. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld individual gun ownership rights, most notably in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022).
The consequences are well documented. The US has a gun-related death rate significantly higher than any comparable wealthy nation. Firearms are the leading cause of death for Americans aged 1–19. The debate about what, if anything, to do about this is one of the most entrenched political divides in American life — with public opinion itself divided, though polling consistently shows majority support for specific measures like universal background checks.
“Switzerland has high gun ownership and low gun violence. The US has high gun ownership and high gun violence. The difference is not the guns — it is the culture, the regulations, and the social context around them.”
The Counterexample — Switzerland and the Nordic Countries
One of the most common arguments in the gun control debate is that high gun ownership inevitably leads to high gun violence. Switzerland, Finland, Iceland, and Norway challenge that assumption. All four have relatively high civilian gun ownership rates by global standards — yet their gun homicide rates are among the lowest in the world.
The reasons are complex: strict licensing, mandatory safe storage, cultural norms around gun use, stronger social safety nets, and lower rates of the socioeconomic inequality associated with gun violence. Switzerland’s high ownership is partly explained by its militia system — citizens have historically kept service rifles at home. Iceland’s ownership is driven by hunting culture in a country with virtually no gun crime.
The Swiss and Nordic cases do not prove that gun control is unnecessary — they prove that gun ownership in isolation does not determine outcomes. The regulatory environment, the cultural context, and the social conditions in which guns exist matter at least as much as the number of firearms in circulation.
The Debate — Both Sides Honestly
- Self-defence is a fundamental individual right
- Armed citizens can deter crime and tyranny
- High ownership countries like Switzerland have low violence
- Most gun owners use firearms safely and responsibly
- Gun control disproportionately affects law-abiding citizens — criminals don’t follow laws
- Constitutional protection in democracies like the US and Mexico
- More guns correlates with more gun deaths across countries
- Firearms are the leading cause of death for US children
- Countries with strict controls (Japan, UK, Australia) have near-zero gun homicides
- Most gun deaths are suicides — access to firearms increases completion rate
- Mass shooting frequency correlates with gun availability
- Background checks and licensing reduce crime without banning guns
The Bottom Line
Gun ownership is legal in over 175 countries, but the degree of regulation varies enormously — from the essentially unrestricted access of the United States to the near-total civilian bans of Japan and North Korea, with most of the world sitting somewhere in the regulated middle.
The data does not support simple conclusions. High gun ownership does not automatically mean high gun violence — Switzerland and Iceland prove that. But the United States, with the highest ownership rate in the world and one of the highest gun death rates among wealthy democracies, represents a combination of factors that goes beyond simple access to firearms: cultural, historical, social, and political dimensions that make the American gun debate unlike any other in the world.
What the global comparison does show is that regulation works when it is enforced, culturally accepted, and consistently applied — and that the absence of meaningful regulation, in a society with deep social divisions and widespread economic inequality, produces predictable outcomes.
Data sources: Small Arms Survey 2017 (most recent comprehensive global benchmark), World Population Review, FBI NICS data, CDC WONDER database, Gallup 2025 survey. Gun ownership statistics vary between sources due to differing methodologies and definitions. All figures should be treated as estimates.