Member states of NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a group of countries that work together for safety and peace. It has 32 member states from Europe and North America. NATO was created on April 4, 1949, when leaders from many countries signed an agreement to support each other. Most of these countries are also part of the European Union.

All NATO members have armies, except for Iceland, which does not have a typical army but has a coast guard and some special workers for NATO. Three big countries in NATO — France, the United Kingdom, and the United States — have special powerful weapons.

One important rule in NATO is found in Article 5. It says that if one member is attacked, it is like an attack on all members, and they will help defend each other if needed. Since the end of a big conflict called the Cold War, NATO has grown by adding more countries from 1999 to 2024. Today, NATO also looks forward to helping Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine become members in the future.

Founding members and enlargement

Main article: Enlargement of NATO

NATO started on April 4, 1949, when 12 countries signed an agreement called the North Atlantic Treaty. These countries were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

More countries joined NATO later. During a time called the Cold War, Greece and Turkey joined in 1952, West Germany in 1955, and Spain in 1982. After the Cold War ended, many more countries became members, including Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and others. Today, NATO has 32 member countries. The area covered by NATO is about 27,580,492 km².

List of member states

The current members and the dates they joined are shown below.

Special arrangements

Three Nordic countries — Denmark, Iceland, and Norway — joined NATO when it began. They chose not to have permanent military bases, nuclear weapons, or regular military activities on their land unless asked. However, Denmark allowed the US to keep a base on the island of Greenland.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, France followed its own military plans and stayed separate from some NATO activities. Later, in 2009, Nicolas Sarkozy brought France back into some important NATO groups. France still does not join the group that plans for nuclear weapons and does not promise to use its nuclear submarines with NATO, unlike the United States and the United Kingdom.

List of member states of NATO
Name	Capital	Accession	Population	Area	Military budget as %GDP 2024	GDP 2025 (million US$)	Languages
Albania	Tirana	1 April 2009	002,854,710	28,748 km² (11,100 sq mi)	2.03	28,372	Albanian
Belgium	Brussels	24 August 1949	011,611,419	30,528 km² (11,787 sq mi)	1.30	684,864	Dutch French German
Bulgaria	Sofia	29 March 2004	006,885,868	110,879 km² (42,811 sq mi)	2.18	117,007	Bulgarian
Canada	Ottawa	24 August 1949	038,155,012	9,984,670 km² (3,855,103 sq mi)	1.37	2,225,341	English French
Croatia	Zagreb	1 April 2009	004,060,135	56,594 km² (21,851 sq mi)	1.81	98,951	Croatian
Czech Republic	Prague	12 March 1999	010,510,751	78,867 km² (30,451 sq mi)	2.10	360,244	Czech
Denmark	Copenhagen	24 August 1949	005,854,240	2,210,573 km² (853,507 sq mi)	2.37	449,940	Danish
Estonia	Tallinn	29 March 2004	001,328,701	45,228 km² (17,463 sq mi)	3.43	45,004	Estonian
Finland	Helsinki	4 April 2023	005,619,399	338,455 km² (130,678 sq mi)	2.41	303,945	Finnish Swedish
France	Paris	24 August 1949	064,531,444	643,427 km² (248,429 sq mi)	2.06	3,211,292	French
Germany	Berlin	6 May 1955 (West Germany) 3 October 1990 (Germany)	083,408,554	357,022 km² (137,847 sq mi)	2.12	4,744,804	German
Greece	Athens	18 February 1952	010,445,365	131,957 km² (50,949 sq mi)	3.08	267,348	Greek
Hungary	Budapest	12 March 1999	009,709,786	93,028 km² (35,918 sq mi)	2.11	237,070	Hungarian
Iceland	Reykjavík	24 August 1949	000,370,335	103,000 km² (39,769 sq mi)	0.0	35,309	Icelandic
Italy	Rome	24 August 1949	059,240,329	301,340 km² (116,348 sq mi)	1.49	2,422,855	Italian
Latvia	Riga	29 March 2004	001,873,919	64,589 km² (24,938 sq mi)	3.15	43,598	Latvian
Lithuania	Vilnius	29 March 2004	002,786,651	65,300 km² (25,212 sq mi)	2.85	89,192	Lithuanian
Luxembourg	Luxembourg	24 August 1949	000,639,321	2,586 km² (998 sq mi)	1.29	96,613	Luxembourgish French German
Montenegro	Podgorica	5 June 2017	000,627,859	13,812 km² (5,333 sq mi)	2.02	8,562	Montenegrin
Netherlands	Amsterdam	24 August 1949	017,501,696	41,543 km² (16,040 sq mi)	2.05	1,272,011	Dutch
North Macedonia	Skopje	27 March 2020	002,103,330	25,713 km² (9,928 sq mi)	2.22	17,885	Macedonian
Norway	Oslo	24 August 1949	005,403,021	385,207 km² (148,729 sq mi)	2.20	504,276	Norwegian
Poland	Warsaw	12 March 1999	038,307,726	312,685 km² (120,728 sq mi)	4.12	979,960	Polish
Portugal	Lisbon	24 August 1949	010,290,103	92,090 km² (35,556 sq mi)	1.55	321,440	Portuguese
Romania	Bucharest	29 March 2004	019,328,560	238,391 km² (92,043 sq mi)	2.25	403,395	Romanian
Slovakia	Bratislava		005,447,622	49,035 km² (18,933 sq mi)	2.0	147,031	Slovak
Slovenia	Ljubljana		002,119,410	20,273 km² (7,827 sq mi)	1.29	75,224	Slovene
Spain	Madrid	30 May 1982	047,486,935	505,370 km² (195,124 sq mi)	1.28	1,799,511	Spanish
Sweden	Stockholm	7 March 2024	010,467,097	450,295 km² (173,860 sq mi)	2.14	620,297	Swedish
Turkey	Ankara	18 February 1952	084,775,404	783,562 km² (302,535 sq mi)	2.09	1,437,406	Turkish
United Kingdom	London	24 August 1949	067,281,039	243,610 km² (94,058 sq mi)	2.33	3,839,180	English
United States	Washington, D.C.	24 August 1949	336,997,624	9,833,520 km² (3,796,743 sq mi)	3.38	30,507,217	English

Membership aspirations

As of March 2024, three countries have said they want to join NATO: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine.

In 2008, NATO said that Georgia and Ukraine "will become members of NATO in the future". Bosnia and Herzegovina was asked to join a special plan to help it join NATO in April 2010.

Withdrawal

No country has ever left NATO. Some places that were controlled by NATO members chose not to join NATO after they became independent countries. These include:

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

Military personnel

The list below comes from The Military Balance, a book published each year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Numbers of military personnel
Country	Active	Reserve	Paramilitary	Total	Per 1,000 capita
Country	Active	Reserve	Paramilitary	Total	total	active
Albania	5,350	2,100	2,150	9,600	3.1	1.7
Belgium	23,500	5,900	0	29,400	2.5	2
Bulgaria	36,950	3,000	0	39,950	5.9	5.4
Canada	62,300	29,100	5,800	97,200	2.5	1.6
Croatia	16,800	21,000	3,000	40,800	9.8	4
Czech Republic	26,600	4,200	0	30,800	2.8	2.5
Denmark	13,100	44,200	0	57,300	9.6	2.2
Estonia	7,100	20,000	21,200	48,300	40.5	5.9
Finland	23,850	233,000	2,900	259,750	46.2	4.2
France	202,200	38,500	95,100	335,800	4.9	3
Germany	179,850	34,100	0	213,950	2.5	2.1
Greece	132,000	289,000	7,400	428,400	41	12.6
Hungary	32,150	20,000	0	52,150	5.3	3.3
Iceland	0	0	250	250	0.7	0
Italy	161,850	14,500	178,600	354,950	5.8	2.7
Latvia	7,870	38,000	10,000	55,870	30	4.2
Lithuania	16,100	12,950	18,400	47,450	18.1	6.1
Luxembourg	900	0	600	1,500	2.2	1.3
Montenegro	2,710	2,800	4,100	9,610	16	4.5
Netherlands	33,650	6,350	6,500	46,500	2.6	1.9
North Macedonia	8,000	4,850	7,600	20,450	9.6	3.7
Norway	25,400	40,000	0	65,400	11.9	4.6
Poland	164,100	37,500	14,300	215,900	5.6	4.2
Portugal	21,500	23,500	22,600	67,600	6.6	2.1
Romania	69,900	55,000	57,000	181,900	10	3.9
Slovakia	12,800	0	0	12,800	2.3	2.3
Slovenia	6,200	950	0	7,150	3.4	3
Spain	122,200	13,800	80,500	216,500	4.6	2.6
Sweden	14,850	21,500	0	36,350	3.4	1.4
Turkey	355,200	378,700	160,800	894,700	10.6	4.2
United Kingdom	141,100	70,450	0	211,550	3.1	2.1
United States	1,315,600	797,200	0	2,112,800	6.2	3.8
NATO	3,240,410	2,233,850	688,800	6,163,060	6.3	3.3

Military expenditures

NATO members spend money on their militaries. The United States spends more than any other country. In fact, the US spends more than all the other NATO members together.

Many NATO members promised to spend at least 2% of their money on defense. But most did not reach this goal in 2023. This led to different reactions from leaders in America and Europe.

Member state	Population	GDP (nominal) ($billions)	Defence expenditure (US$)			Personnel
Member state	Population	GDP (nominal) ($billions)	Total ($millions)	% real GDP	Per capita	Personnel
Albania	2,872,849	29.89	598	2.00	157	6,600
Belgium	12,055,794	725.00	14,465	2.00	1,085	22,100
Bulgaria	6,670,476	128.97	2,755	2.14	317	26,600
Canada	40,086,114	2,282.50	45,562	2.00	1,051	70,900
Croatia	4,026,339	104.04	2,182	2.10	453	13,600
Czech Republic	10,745,564	388.03	78,194	2.01	574	29,100
Denmark	5,936,566	458.55	15,299	3.34	2,416	18,000
Estonia	1,301,740	47.42	1,623	3.42	909	7,800
Finland	5,712,138	316.95	9,095	2.87	1,497	27,700
France	67,065,327	3,367.43	68,905	2.05	940	201,700
Germany	83,982,479	5,042.75	120,747	2.39	1,257	182,300
Greece	10,186,705	282.57	7,871	2.79	651	104,100
Hungary	9,479,265	247.43	5,130	2.07	416	19,900
Iceland	355,437	38.34	—N/a	—N/a	—N/a	—N/a
Italy	60,775,803	2,549.38	51,197	2.01	798	193,700
Latvia	1,760,090	47.70	1,782	3.74	790	8,200
Lithuania	2,472,510	94.84	3,797	4.00	1.019	19,000
Luxembourg	711,892	66.20	1,408	2.13	1.750	1,000
Montenegro	632,886	9.18	188	2.05	235	1,700
Netherlands	17,494,438	1,329.13	30,498	2.59	1,618	45,100
North Macedonia	2,103,765	18.89	402	2.13	183	6,000
Norway	5,843,854	518.84	16,598	3.20	3,026	26,700
Poland	37,912,247	1031.96	44,360	4.30	891	252,900
Portugal	9,927,058	345.50	6,911	2.00	546	21,500
Romania	18,362,627	420.57	9,300	2.21	361	69,800
Slovakia	5,482,699	153.63	3,162	2.06	480	13,500
Slovenia	2,097,913	79.55	1,624	2.04	637	5,900
Spain	46,141,946	1,897.02	37,940	2.00	691	117,400
Sweden	10,603,412	663.33	16,601	2.50	1,531	25,700
Turkey	93,157,395	1,563.43	36,414	2.33	265	370,300
United Kingdom	70,422,211	4,020.45	92,875	2.31	1,146	126,100
United States	345,949,138	30,674.37	980,000	3.19	2,460	1,291,300
NATO	992,328,677	58,943.84	1,637,108	2.77	1,434	3,326,200

Political and popular support

A survey from 2016 showed that most NATO member countries liked the organization, but many wanted to keep their military spending the same. People had different ideas about helping another NATO member if it had a big problem with Russia. In some countries, less than half of the people wanted to use military force to help a NATO ally if attacked by Russia. Germany had the strongest opposition, with 58% against using force. France and Italy also had many people against it. However, more than half of people in the United States and Canada were willing to help. Britain and Poland also showed support, but opinions were divided.

More recent polls in 2025 showed that in the United Kingdom, 45% of people strongly supported NATO, with older people showing more support than younger people. In Slovenia, support for NATO membership was at 52% in 2025, lower than the 66% who voted for it in a vote back in 2003.