Stockholders' Equity - Additional Information (Detail) - USD ($) $ / shares in Units, $ in Billions	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
Sep. 28, 2019	Sep. 29, 2018	Sep. 28, 2019	Sep. 29, 2018
Common Stock, Dividends, Per Share, Declared	$ 0.40	$ 0.38	$ 1.20	$ 1.14
Common Stock [Member]
Stock Repurchase Program, Authorized Amount	$ 2.0		$ 2.0
Share repurchase program, available repurchase amount	$ 1.3		$ 1.3
Nucor Yamato Steel Company [Member]
Noncontrolling Interest, Ownership Percentage by Parent	51.00%	51.00%	51.00%	51.00%

Aggregate dividends declared during the period for each share of common stock outstanding.

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 505
-SubTopic 10
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.3-04)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=27012166&loc=d3e187085-122770

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:perShareItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration