List of countries by gun ownership

This is a list of countries by gun ownership rate (number of privately owned small firearms divided by number of residents).[1][2][3][4]

The numbers are based on the average of figures provided by the Small Arms Survey, in the Small Arms Survey 2007,[3] unless other sources are provided, and are an estimation based on dividing the total amount of civilian owned guns in a nation by the total population of that nation. As some people may possess multiple weapons while others possess none, this number is not a representation of the percentage of people who possess guns in each nation.

The ownership rate reported is the average estimate taken from "Annexe 4: The largest civilian firearms arsenals for 178 countries. That table gives also the minimum and maximum estimates. Note that for some countries, this margin of error is considerable. E.g. Yemen, ranked near the top with an ownership rate of 54.8, has a low estimate of 28.6 and a high estimate of 81.1. While the United States is ranked for the highest gun ownership rate unambiguously, Yemen based on the margin of error may rank anywhere between 2nd and 18th, Switzerland anywhere between 2nd and 16th.

The lowest gun ownership rate among the 178 countries surveyed as of 2007 was reported from Tunisia, with 0.1 (or a total number of 9,000 guns), due to very strict gun control under the Ben Ali regime (compare the rates of the neighbouring states, Algeria: 7.6, Libya: 15.5).

Country Guns per 100
residents (2007)		 Rank
(2007)		 Comments
 United States 88.8 1
 Serbia 58.2 2 [5]
 Yemen 54.8 3
 Switzerland 45.7 4
 Cyprus 36.4 5
 Saudi Arabia 35.0 6
 Iraq 34.2 7
 Finland 32.0 8 [6]
 Uruguay 31.8 9
 Sweden 31.6 10
 Norway 31.3 11
 France 31.2 12
 Canada 30.8 13
 Austria 30.4 14
 Iceland 30.3 15
 Germany 30.3 15
 New Zealand 22.6 22 1993: 26.8.[2]
 Greece 22.5 23
 Northern Ireland 21.9 25
 Angola 17.3 34
 Thailand 15.6 39
 Australia 15.0 42
 Mexico 15.0 42
 South Africa 12.7 50
 Turkey 12.5 52
 Italy 11.9 55
 Pakistan 11.6 57
 Spain 10.4 61
 Argentina 10.2 62
 Russia 8.9 68
 Iran 7.3 79
 England and  Wales (England and Wales) 6.2 88
 Scotland 5.5 93
 China 4.9 102
 India 4.2 110
 Tunisia 0.1 178

See also

References

  1. ^ Vladeta Ajdacic-Gross, Martin Killias, Urs Hepp, Erika Gadola, Matthias Bopp, Christoph Lauber, Ulrich Schnyder, Felix Gutzwiller, Wulf Rössler. "Firearm suicides and the availability of firearms: analysis of longitudinal international data". Poster presented at the European Congress of Epidemiology, Utrecht. http://www.puk-west.unizh.ch/en/publikationen/suicide.shtml. 
  2. ^ a b Martin Killias (1993). "Gun Ownership, Suicide and Homicide: An International Perspective". http://www.unicri.it/wwk/publications/books/series/understanding/19_GUN_OWNERSHIP.pdf. 
  3. ^ a b Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies. "Small Arms Survey 2007". Cambridge. http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/files/sas/publications/year_b_pdf/2007/CH2%20Stockpiles.pdf. 
  4. ^ Small Arms Survey 2007 Part 2
  5. ^ .SEESAC. 2006. ‘South Eastern Europe: Weapons Possession Per 100 Inhabitants.’ South Eastern Europe: Estimates of Weapons Possession (Edition 2). Belgrade: South Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC). 12 January.
  6. ^ Fact sheet about gun ownership in Finland, 29 August 2008, Ministry of Interior of Finland

External links

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