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Member states of NATO

International military alliance

NATO in 2025

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an international military alliance consisting of 32 member states from Europe and North America. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. Of the 32 member countries, 30 are in Europe and 2 are in North America. Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbours were set up, including the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative, and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.

All members have militaries, except for Iceland, which does not have a typical army (but it does have a coast guard and a small unit of civilian specialists for NATO operations). Three of NATO's members are nuclear weapons states: France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NATO has 12 original founding member states. Three more members joined between 1952 and 1955, and a fourth joined in 1982. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has added 16 more members from 1999 to 2024. Article 5 of the treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it shall be considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary. Article 6 of the treaty limits the scope of Article 5 to the islands north of the Tropic of Cancer, the North American and European mainlands, the entirety of Turkey, and French Algeria, the last of which has been moot since July 1962. Thus, an attack on Hawaii, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, the Falkland Islands, Ceuta or Melilla, among other places, would not trigger an Article 5 response.

NATO recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine as aspiring members as part of their Open Door enlargement policy.

Founding members and enlargement

Main article: Enlargement 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.

The various allies all signed the Ottawa Agreement, which is a 1951 document that acts to embody civilian oversight of the Alliance.

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). Additionally, NATO experienced territorial expansion during this period without adding new member states when Zone A of the Free Territory of Trieste was annexed by Italy in 1954, and the territory of the former East Germany was added with the reunification of Germany in 1990. 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). 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, although France withdrew from NATO unified command between 1966 and 2009.

Since the accession of Sweden on 7 March 2024, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization covers a total area of 27580492 km2.

In October 2025, during a meeting between US president Donald Trump and Finnish president Alexander Stubb, Trump claimed that Spain fails to meet the budget agreement of 5% GDP defense expenditure and was quoted saying: "You people are gonna have to start speaking to Spain, . . . You have to call them and find [out] why are they a laggard."

List of member states

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

Flag	Map	Name	Capital	Accession	Population	Area	Military budget as %GDP 2024	GDP 2025 (million US$)	Languages	Albania	Belgium	Bulgaria	Canada	Croatia
[[File:Flag of Albania.svg	border	centre	100px	link=Flag of Albania]]	[[File:Albania on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Tirana		2,854,710		2.03	28,372	Albanian
[[File:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg	border	centre	100px	link=Flag of Belgium]]	[[File:Belgium on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Brussels		11,611,419		1.30	684,864	Dutch
French
German
[[File:Flag of Bulgaria.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Bulgaria]]	[[File:Bulgaria on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Sofia		6,885,868		2.18	117,007	Bulgarian
[[File:Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg	border	centre	100px	link=Flag of Canada]]	[[File:Canada on the globe (North America centered).svg	150px]]	Ottawa		38,155,012		1.37	2,225,341	English
French
[[File:Flag of Croatia.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Croatia]]	[[File:Croatia on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Zagreb		4,060,135		1.81	98,951	Croatian
[[File:Flag of the Czech Republic.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of the Czech Republic]]	[[File:Czech Republic on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Prague		10,510,751		2.10	360,244	Czech
[[File:Flag of Denmark.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Denmark]]	[[File:Denmark including autonomous territories on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Copenhagen		5,854,240		2.37	449,940	Danish
[[File:Flag of Estonia.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Estonia]]	[[File:Estonia on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Tallinn		1,328,701		3.43	45,004	Estonian
[[File:Flag of Finland.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Finland]]	[[File:Finland on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Helsinki		5,619,399		2.41	303,945	Finnish
Swedish
[[File:Flag of France.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of France]]	[[File:France on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Paris		64,531,444		2.06	3,211,292	French
[[File:Flag of Germany.svg	100px	link=Flag of Germany]]	[[File:Germany on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Berlin
(West Germany)
(Germany)	83,408,554		2.12	4,744,804	German
[[File:Flag of Greece.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Greece]]	[[File:Greece on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Athens		10,445,365		3.08	267,348	Greek
[[File:Flag of Hungary.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Hungary]]	[[File:Hungary on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Budapest		9,709,786		2.11	237,070	Hungarian
[[File:Flag of Iceland.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Iceland]]	[[File:Iceland on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Reykjavík		370,335		0.0	35,309	Icelandic
[[File:Flag of Italy.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Italy]]	[[File:Italy on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Rome	59,240,329		1.49	2,422,855	Italian
[[File:Flag of Latvia.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Latvia]]	[[File:Latvia on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Riga		1,873,919		3.15	43,598	Latvian
[[File:Flag of Lithuania.svg	100px	link=Flag of Lithuania]]	[[File:Lithuania on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Vilnius	2,786,651		2.85	89,192	Lithuanian
[[File:Flag of Luxembourg.svg	border	centre	100px	link=Flag of Luxembourg]]	[[File:Luxembourg on the globe (Europe centered).svg	centre	150px]]	Luxembourg		639,321		1.29	96,613	Luxembourgish
French
German
[[File:Flag of Montenegro.svg	100px	link=Flag of Montenegro]]	[[File:Montenegro on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Podgorica		627,859		2.02	8,562	Montenegrin
[[File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands]]	[[File:Netherlands on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Amsterdam		17,501,696		2.05	1,272,011	Dutch
[[File:Flag of North Macedonia.svg	100px	link=Flag of North Macedonia]]	[[File:North Macedonia on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Skopje		2,103,330		2.22	17,885	Macedonian
[[File:Flag of Norway.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Norway]]	[[File:Norway on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Oslo		5,403,021		2.20	504,276	Norwegian
[[File:Flag of Poland.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Poland]]	[[File:Poland on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Warsaw		38,307,726		4.12	979,960	Polish
[[File:Flag of Portugal.svg	100px	link=Flag of Portugal]]	[[File:Portugal on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Lisbon		10,290,103		1.55	321,440	Portuguese
[[File:Flag of Romania.svg	100px	link=Flag of Romania]]	[[File:Romania on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Bucharest		19,328,560		2.25	403,395	Romanian
[[File:Flag of Slovakia.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Slovakia]]	[[File:Slovakia on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Bratislava	5,447,622		2.0	147,031	Slovak
[[File:Flag of Slovenia.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Slovenia]]	[[File:Slovenia on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Ljubljana	2,119,410		1.29	75,224	Slovene
[[File:Flag of Spain.svg	100px	link=Flag of Spain]]	[[File:Spain on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Madrid		47,486,935		1.28	1,799,511	Spanish
[[File:Flag of Sweden.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of Sweden]]	[[File:Sweden on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Stockholm		10,467,097		2.14	620,297	Swedish
[[File:Flag of Turkey.svg	100px	link=Flag of Turkey]]	[[File:Turkey on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	Ankara		84,775,404		2.09	1,437,406	Turkish
[[File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg	border	100px	link=Flag of the United Kingdom]]	[[File:United Kingdom on the globe (Europe centered).svg	150px]]	London		67,281,039		2.33	3,839,180	English
[[File:Flag of the United States (Pantone).svg	border	100px	link=Flag of the United States]]	[[File:United States on the globe (North America centered).svg	150px]]	Washington, D.C.	336,997,624		3.38	30,507,217

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 US to maintain an existing base, Thule Air Base (now Pituffik Space Base), in Greenland.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, France pursued a military strategy of independence from NATO under a policy dubbed "Gaullo-Mitterrandism". 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.

Membership aspirations

, three additional states have formally informed NATO of their membership aspirations: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine.

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

Withdrawal

No state has ever withdrawn from NATO, but some dependencies of member states have not requested membership after becoming independent:

Cyprus (independence from the United Kingdom in 1960)
Algeria (independence from France in 1962)
Malta (independence from the United Kingdom in 1964)

Military personnel

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

Country	Active	Reserve	Paramilitary	Total	Per 1,000 capita	total	active
reserve= 2100	paramilitary= 2150	population=3107100	references=}}	reserve= 5900	paramilitary= 0	population=11977634	references=}}	reserve= 3000	paramilitary= 0	population= 6782659	references=}}	reserve= 29100	paramilitary= 5800	population=38794813	references=}}	reserve= 21000	paramilitary= 3000	population= 4150116	references=}}	reserve= 4200	paramilitary= 0	population=10837890	references=}}	reserve= 44200	paramilitary= 0	population= 5973136	references=}}	reserve= 20000	paramilitary= 21200	population= 1193791	references=}}

Military expenditures

The defence spending of the United States is more than double the defence spending of all other NATO members combined. (Note that this is total U.S. defense spending, not spending specifically for NATO) 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. While NATO members have committed to spending at least 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence, most of them did not meet that goal in 2023.

Member state	Population	GDP
(nominal)
($billions)	Defence expenditure (US$)	Personnel	Total
($millions)	% real GDP	Per capita
Albania	3,101,621	25.43	516	2.03	114	7,000
Belgium	11,913,633	655.74	8,519	1.30	585	21,300
Bulgaria	6,827,736	106.72	2,325	2.18	218	26,900
Canada	38,516,736	2,233.83	30,495	1.37	609	77,100
Croatia	4,169,239	89.90	1,624	1.81	315	13,700
Czech Republic	10,706,242	326.13	6,834	2.10	426	29,500
Denmark	6,057,361	418.58	9,940	2.37	1,479	17,300
Estonia	1,202,762	41.89	1,437	3.43	690	7,500
Finland	5,614,571	302.72	7,308	2.41	1,103	30,800
France	62,819,428	3,120.35	64,271	2.06	801	204,700
Germany	84,220,184	4,610.04	97,686	2.12	911	185,600
Greece	10,497,595	249.81	7,684	3.08	648	110,800
Hungary	9,670,009	231.61	4,889	2.11	349	20,900
Iceland	360,872	32.89
Italy	61,021,855	2,311.17	34,462	1.49	505	171,400
Latvia	1,821,750	45.15	1,421	3.15	539	8,400
Lithuania	2,655,755	80.72	2,300	2.85	538	18,500
Luxembourg	660,924	60.69	785	1.29	921	900
Montenegro	602,445	8.02	162	2.02	170	1,600
Netherlands	17,463,930	1,162.88	21,640	1.85	1,030	41,900
North Macedonia	2,133,410	15.87	353	2.22	127	6,100
Norway	5,600,850	482.58	10,606	2.20	1,754	24,300
Poland	37,991,766	848.86	34,975	4.12	711	216,100
Portugal	10,223,150	298.98	4,627	1.55	360	28,400
Romania	18,326,327	383.92	8,644	2.25	289	66,600
Slovakia	5,425,319	142.81	2,841	1.99	387	15,600
Slovenia	2,099,790	73.52	949	1.29	339	5,900
Spain	47,051,085	1,658.36	21,269	1.28	366	117,400
Sweden	10,536,338	626.54	13,428	2.14	1,185	23,100
Turkey	83,593,483	1,090.29	22,776	2.09	310	481,000
United Kingdom	68,502,956	3,520.50	82,107	2.33	1,077	138,100
United States	338,229,980	28,719.94	967,707	3.37	2,239	1,300,200
NATO	969,619,192	53,976.44	1,474,399	2.73	1,210	3,418,600

Political and popular support

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.

YouGov, a market research company that is mainly active in the UK also hosts a regularly updated public opinion polling for NATO. As of 6 January 2025, 45% of UK citizens strongly support NATO, 31% Tend to support NATO, 18% Don't know, 3% Tend to oppose and 3% Strongly oppose. Older people (65+) Strongly support NATO at 59%, whilst in younger demographics (18-24), Tend to support ranks the highest at 34%, and Don't know is at 33%.

A 2025 poll found that support for NATO membership was 52%, compared to the 66% of Slovenians who voted for NATO membership in a referendum in 2003.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

References

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