Member states of NATO

NATO was established on 4 April 1949 via the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty (Washington Treaty). The 12 founding members of the Alliance were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.^[4]

The various allies all sign the Ottawa Agreement,^[5] which is a 1951 document that acts to embody civilian oversight of the Alliance.^[5][6]

Current membership consists of 32 countries. In addition to the 12 founding countries, four new members joined during the Cold War: Greece and Turkey (1952), West Germany (1955) and Spain (1982). In 1990, the territory of the former East Germany was added with the reunification of Germany. NATO further expanded after the Cold War, adding the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland (1999); Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (2004); Albania and Croatia (2009); Montenegro (2017); North Macedonia (2020); Finland (2023); and Sweden (2024).^[4] Of the territories and members added between 1990 and 2024, all except for Finland and Sweden were either formerly part of the Warsaw Pact (including the formerly Soviet Baltic states) or territories of the former Yugoslavia. No countries have left NATO since its founding.

Currently, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization now covers a total area of 27,580,492 km² (10,648,887 sq mi), since the accession of Sweden on 7 March 2024.

Membership aspirations

As of March 2024^[update], three additional states have formally informed NATO of their membership aspirations: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine.^[3]

• NATO members agreed at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Georgia and Ukraine "will become members of NATO in the future".^[7]
• Bosnia and Herzegovina was invited by NATO to join the Membership Action Plan (MAP) in April 2010.^[7]

The current members and their dates of admission are listed below.

Name	ISO	Capital	Date of accession[8]	Population[a]	Area[10]	Mil. % GDP[11]	GDP (2020 USD)[12]
Albania	AL	Tirana	1 April 2009	003,101,621	28,748 km2 11,100 sq mi	1.5	15,131,866,271
Belgium	BE	Brussels	24 August 1949[b]	011,913,633	30,528 km2 11,787 sq mi	1.1	521,676,942,135
Bulgaria	BG	Sofia	29 March 2004	006,827,736	110,879 km2 42,811 sq mi	1.8	69,889,347,433
Canada	CA	Ottawa	24 August 1949[b]	038,516,736	9,984,670 km2 3,855,103 sq mi	1.4	1,645,423,407,568
Croatia	HR	Zagreb	1 April 2009	004,169,239	56,594 km2 21,851 sq mi	1.8	79,163,000,000
Czech Republic[c]	CZ	Prague	12 March 1999	010,706,242	78,867 km2 30,451 sq mi	1.4	245,339,322,067
Denmark[d]	DK	Copenhagen	24 August 1949[b]	006,057,361	2,210,573 km2 853,507 sq mi[e]	1.4	356,084,867,686
Estonia	EE	Tallinn	29 March 2004	001,202,762	45,228 km2 17,463 sq mi	2.3	30,650,285,472
Finland	FI	Helsinki	4 April 2023	005,614,571	338,455 km2 130,678 sq mi	1.5	269,751,000,000
France[f]	FR	Paris	24 August 1949[b]	062,819,428	643,427 km2 248,429 sq mi	2.1	2,630,317,731,455
Germany[g]	DE	Berlin	6 May 1955 (West Germany) 3 October 1990 (Germany)	084,220,184	357,022 km2 137,847 sq mi	1.4	3,846,413,928,654
Greece	GR	Athens	18 February 1952	010,497,595	131,957 km2 50,949 sq mi	2.8	188,835,201,626
Hungary	HU	Budapest	12 March 1999	009,670,009	93,028 km2 35,918 sq mi	1.6	156,743,134,666
Iceland	IS	Reykjavík	24 August 1949[b]	000,360,872	103,000 km2 39,769 sq mi	0.0	21,718,075,725
Italy	IT	Rome		061,021,855	301,340 km2 116,348 sq mi	1.6	1,892,574,064,222
Latvia	LV	Riga	29 March 2004	001,821,750	64,589 km2 24,938 sq mi	2.3	33,645,460,617
Lithuania	LT	Vilnius		002,655,755	65,300 km2 25,212 sq mi	2.1	56,546,957,475
Luxembourg	LU	Luxembourg	24 August 1949[b]	000,660,924	2,586 km2 998 sq mi	0.8	73,353,132,794
Montenegro	ME	Podgorica	5 June 2017	000,602,445	13,812 km2 5,333 sq mi	2.1	4,780,722,122
Netherlands[h]	NL	Amsterdam	24 August 1949[b]	017,463,930	41,543 km2 16,040 sq mi[i]	1.4	913,865,395,790
North Macedonia	MK	Skopje	27 March 2020	002,133,410[j]	25,713 km2 9,928 sq mi	1.3	12,116,981,815
Norway[k]	NO	Oslo	24 August 1949[b]	005,600,850	323,802 km2 125,021 sq mi	1.9	362,198,318,435
Poland	PL	Warsaw	12 March 1999	037,991,766	312,685 km2 120,728 sq mi	2.2	596,624,355,720
Portugal	PT	Lisbon	24 August 1949[b]	010,223,150	92,090 km2 35,556 sq mi	2.1	228,539,245,045
Romania	RO	Bucharest	29 March 2004	018,326,327	238,391 km2 92,043 sq mi	2.3	249,511,333,648
Slovakia	SK	Bratislava		005,425,319	49,035 km2 18,933 sq mi	1.8	105,172,564,492
Slovenia	SI	Ljubljana		002,099,790	20,273 km2 7,827 sq mi	1.1	53,589,609,581
Spain[l]	ES	Madrid	30 May 1982	047,051,085	505,370 km2 195,124 sq mi	1.4	1,281,484,640,044
Sweden	SE	Stockholm	7 March 2024	010,536,338	450,295 km2 173,860 sq mi	1.3	547,050,000,000
Turkey[m]	TR	Ankara	18 February 1952	083,593,483	783,562 km2 302,535 sq mi	2.8	719,954,821,683
United Kingdom[n]	GB	London	24 August 1949[b]	068,502,956	243,610 km2 94,058 sq mi	2.2	2,756,900,214,107
United States[o]	US	Washington, D.C.		338,229,980	9,833,520 km2 3,796,743 sq mi	3.7	20,893,743,833,000

Special arrangements

The three Nordic countries which joined NATO as founding members, Denmark, Iceland and Norway, chose to limit their participation in three areas: there would be no permanent peacetime bases, no nuclear warheads and no Allied military activity (unless invited) permitted on their territory. However, Denmark allowed the U.S. to maintain an existing base, Thule Air Base (now Pituffik Space Base), in Greenland.^[14]

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, France pursued a military strategy of independence from NATO under a policy dubbed "Gaullo-Mitterrandism".^[15] Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated the return of France to the integrated military command and the Defence Planning Committee in 2009, the latter being disbanded the following year. France remains the only NATO member outside the Nuclear Planning Group and unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, will not commit its nuclear-armed submarines to the alliance.^[16][17]

The following list is constructed from The Military Balance, published annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Numbers of military personnel

Country[18]		Active	Reserve	Para­mili­tary	Total	Per 1,000 capita
						total	active
	Albania	10,500	0	500	11,000	3.6	3.4
	Belgium	29,400	5,900	0	35,300	3	2.5
	Bulgaria	42,663	3,000	0	45,663	6.6	6.2
	Canada	70,500	35,600	5,500	111,600	2.9	1.9
	Croatia	16,700	21,000	3,000	40,700	9.7	4
	Czech Republic	27,400	4,200	0	31,600	3	2.6
	Denmark	20,440	45,800	0	66,240	11.2	3.5
	Estonia	7,600	230,000	15,800	253,400	207.7	6.2
	Finland	24,250	900,000	14,321	938,571	168.7	4.4
	France	208,750	141,050	175,050	524,850	7.7	3.1
	Germany	184,100	50,050	0	234,150	2.9	2.3
	Greece	143,300	221,350	4,000	368,650	34.8	13.5
	Hungary	41,600	20,000	12,000	73,600	7.6	4.3
	Iceland	250	250	250	750	2.1	0.7
	Italy[p]	175,100	18,300	182,350	375,750	6	2.8
	Latvia	16,700	36,000	0	52,700	28.3	9
	Lithuania	23,000	90,000	14,150	127,150	46.9	8.5
	Luxembourg	940	0	600	1,540	2.4	1.5
	Montenegro	2,350	2,800	10,100	15,250	25.1	3.9
	Netherlands	41,543	6,643	6,500	54,686	3.2	2.4
	North Macedonia	8,000	26,850	7,600	42,450	19.9	3.8
	Norway	25,400	40,000	0	65,400	11.9	4.6
	Poland	164,500	200,000	75,400	439,900	11.5	4.3
	Portugal	33,200	211,700	24,700	269,600	26.3	3.2
	Romania	72,000	55,000	79,900	206,900	9.7	3.4
	Slovakia	19,500	0	0	19,500	3.6	3.6
	Slovenia	7,500	26,200	5,950	39,650	18.9	3.6
	Spain	133,282	15,450	75,800	224,532	4.8	2.8
	Sweden	24,400	32,900	0	57,300	5.4	2.3
	Turkey	690,811	380,700	192,534	1,264,045	15.3	8.4
	United Kingdom	196,453	78,600	0	275,053	4.2	3
	United States	1,598,287	1,072,543	0	2,670,830	8	4.8
	NATO	3,869,402	3,768,103	870,271	8,507,776	1,000	454.8

The defence spending of the United States is more than double the defence spending of all other NATO members combined.^[19] Criticism of the fact that many member states were not contributing their fair share in accordance with the international agreement by then US president Donald Trump caused various reactions from American and European political figures, ranging from ridicule to panic.^[20][21][22]

Total Military budget of European NATO countries (excluding Turkey) as a percentage of US military budget. Chinese and Russian military spending included for comparison^[23]

Member state	Popu­lation[a]	GDP (nomi­nal) ($billions)[u]	Defence expenditure (US$)[v]				Person­nel[v]
			Total ($mil­lions)	% real GDP	Per capita	Per 1,000 personnel ($millions)
Albania	3,101,621	20.18	198	1.26	58	29	6,800
Belgium	11,913,633	624.25	4,921	0.93	392	189	26,000
Bulgaria	6,827,736	100.64	1,079	1.61	132	43	25,000
Canada	38,516,736	2,089.67	21,885	1.27	569	304	72,000
Croatia	4,169,239	78.89	1,072	1.75	238	71	15,000
Czech Republic	10,706,242	330.48	2,969	1.19	236	114	26,000
Denmark	6,057,361	405.63	4,760	1.35	760	280	17,000
Estonia	1,202,762	41.55	669	2.13	429	106	6,300
Finland	5,614,571	301.67	4,046
France	62,819,428	2,923.93	50,659	1.84	709	244	208,000
Germany	84,220,184	4,308.85	54,113	1.36	591	294	184,000
Greece	10,497,595	239.30	4,844	2.24	431	46	105,000
Hungary	9,670,009	188.51	2,080	1.21	178	104	20,000
Iceland	360,872	28.63	—	—	—	—	—
Italy	61,021,855	2,169.75	24,482	1.22	385	137	179,000
Latvia	1,821,750	47.40	724	2.01	325	113	6,400
Lithuania	2,655,755	78.35	1,084	2.13	336	53	21,000
Luxembourg	660,924	86.97	391	0.55	552	434	900
Montenegro	602,445	7.03	92	1.65	126	58	1,600
Netherlands	17,463,930	1,080.88	12,419	1.35	655	303	41,000
North Macedonia	2,133,410	15.28	108	1.09	51	15	7,200
Norway	5,600,850	554.10	7,179	1.70	1,308	359	20,000
Poland	37,991,766	748.89	11,971	2.01	296	97	123,000
Portugal	10,223,150	267.72	3,358	1.41	299	112	30,000
Romania	18,326,327	348.90	5,043	2.04	225	73	69,000
Slovakia	5,425,319	127.53	1,905	1.74	322	147	13,000
Slovenia	2,099,790	68.11	581	1.04	253	85	6,800
Spain	47,051,085	1,492.43	13,156	0.92	264	109	121,000
Sweden	10,536,338
Turkey	83,593,483	1,029.30	13,919	1.89	225	32	435,000
United Kingdom	68,502,956	3,158.94	60,376	2.13	979	419	144,000
United States	338,229,980	26,854.60	730,149	3.42	2,072	546	1,338,000
NATO	969,619,192	49,818.36	1,036,186	2.51	1,045	317	3,268,000

Pew Research Center's 2016 survey among its member states showed that while most countries viewed NATO positively, most NATO members preferred keeping their military spending the same. The response to whether their country should militarily aid another NATO country if it were to get into a serious military conflict with Russia was also mixed. Roughly half or fewer in six of the eight countries surveyed say their country should use military force if Russia attacks a neighboring country that is a NATO ally. And at least half in three of the eight NATO countries say that their government should not use military force in such circumstances. The strongest opposition to responding with armed force is in Germany (58%), followed by France (53%) and Italy (51%). More than half of Americans (56%) and Canadians (53%) are willing to respond to Russian military aggression against a fellow NATO country. A plurality of the British (49%) and Poles (48%) would also live up to their Article 5 commitment. The Spanish are divided on the issue: 48% support it, 47% oppose.^[26][27]

Citations

Bibliography