Member states of NATO

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Current NATO members highlighted in blue
Timeline of countries becoming NATO members. Dark blue marks countries that were already NATO members at the given time. Light blue marks new members.

NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an international alliance that consists of 28 member states from North America and Europe. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. Article Five of the treaty states that if an armed attack occurs against one of the member states, it should be considered an attack against all members, and other members shall assist the attacked member, with armed forces if necessary.[1]

Of the 28 member countries, two are located in North America (Canada and the United States) and 25 are European countries while Turkey is in Eurasia. All members have militaries, except for Iceland which does not have a typical army (but does, however, 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 nation states and from 18 February 1952 to 1 April 2009 it added 16 more member nations.

Original and joining members

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Main article: Enlargement of NATO

NATO has added new members six times since its founding in 1949, and since 2009 NATO has had 28 members. Twelve countries were part of the founding of NATO: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1952, Greece and Turkey became members of the Alliance, joined later by West Germany (in 1955) and Spain (in 1982). In 1990, with the reunification of Germany, NATO grew to include the former country of East Germany. Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbors were set up, including the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. In 1997, three former Warsaw Pact countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, were invited to join NATO. After this fourth enlargement in 1999, the Vilnius group of The Baltics and seven East European countries formed in May 2000 to cooperate and lobby for further NATO membership. Seven of these countries joined in the fifth enlargement in 2004. Albania and Croatia joined in the sixth enlargement in 2009.

Member states by date of accession

Date[2] Country Enlargement Notes
4 April 1949  Belgium Founders
 Canada
 Denmark Denmark's NATO membership includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
 France France withdrew from the integrated military command in 1966 to pursue an independent defense system but returned to full participation on 3 April 2009.
 Iceland Iceland, the sole member that does not have its own standing army, joined on the condition that it would not be expected to establish one. However, its strategic geographic position in the Atlantic made it an invaluable member. It has a Coast Guard and has recently contributed a voluntary peacekeeping force, trained in Norway for NATO.
 Italy
 Luxembourg
 Netherlands
 Norway
 Portugal
 United Kingdom
 United States
18 February 1952  Greece First Greece withdrew its forces from NATO’s military command structure from 1974 to 1980 as a result of Greco-Turkish tensions following the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
 Turkey
6 May 1955  Germany Second Joined as West Germany; Saarland reunited with it in 1957 and the territories of Berlin and the former German Democratic Republic reunited with it on 3 October 1990. The GDR (East Germany) was a member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1956–1990.
30 May 1982  Spain Third
12 March 1999  Czech Republic Fourth Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of Czechoslovakia.
 Hungary Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991.
 Poland Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1990.
29 March 2004  Bulgaria Fifth Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991.
 Estonia Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of the Soviet Union.
 Latvia Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of the Soviet Union.
 Lithuania Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of the Soviet Union.
 Romania Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991.
 Slovakia Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1991 as part of Czechoslovakia.
 Slovenia Previously part of Yugoslavia 1945–1991 (Non-aligned)
1 April 2009  Albania Sixth Member of the rival Warsaw Pact 1955–1968.
 Croatia Previously part of Yugoslavia 1945–1991 (Non-aligned)

Military personnel

Country Active personnel Reserve personnel Total
 Albania 14,500 5,000 19,500
 Belgium 24,500 100,500 125,000
 Bulgaria 35,000 302,500 337,500
 Canada 68,000 27,000 95,000
 Croatia 18,000 180,000 198,000
 Czech Republic 21,057 2,359 23,416
 Denmark 15,000 63,000 89,000
 Estonia 3,209 60,000 63,209
 France 222,215 100,000 322,215
 Germany 180,676 145,000 325,676
 Greece 109,070 280,000 389,070
 Hungary 19,000 19,000
 Iceland 210 170 380
 Italy 180,000 41,867 220,867
 Latvia 6,000 11,000 17,000
 Lithuania 14,995 4,260 19,255
 Luxembourg 1,057 278 1,335
 Netherlands 47,660 57,200 104,860
 Norway 26,200 56,200 82,400
 Poland 120,000 515,000 635,000
 Portugal 44,900 210,930 255,830
 Romania 73,350 79,900 153,250
 Slovakia 16,000 16,000
 Slovenia 7,300 1,500 8,801
 Spain 123,000 16,200 139,200
 Turkey 612,900 429,000 1,041,900
 United Kingdom 205,851 181,720 387,571
 United States 1,369,532 850,880 2,220,412
 NATO 3,585,000 3,745,000 7,330,000

Military expenditures

Country Population
(2014)		 GDP (nominal)
(2014, US$ millions)		 Military expenditures
(2014, US$ millions)		 Military expenditures
(2014, % of GDP)		 Defence expenditures,
(2014, US$ per capita)		 Deployable military
(2013)
 Albania 3,020,209 13,262 135 1.0 42.2 8,000
 Belgium 10,449,361 534,672 5,190 1.0 468 31,000
 Bulgaria 6,924,716 55,837 837 1.6 116 26,000
 Canada 34,834,841 1,788,717 17,452 1.0 492 70,000
 Croatia 4,470,534 57,159 875 1.5 204 16,000
 Czech Republic 10,627,448 205,658 2,023 1.0 189 21,000
 Denmark 5,569,077 340,806 4,457 1.3 796 19,000
 Estonia 1,257,921 25,953 509 2.0 392 6,000
 France 66,259,012 2,846,889 62,289 2.2 964 213,000
 Germany 80,996,685 3,859,547 46,455 1.2 562 184,000
 Greece 10,775,557 238,023 5,318 2.2 479 109,000
 Hungary 9,919,128 137,104 1,164 0.9 118 18,000
 Iceland 317,351 16,693 4.5 0.03 14.2 0a
 Italy 61,680,122 2,147,952 30,909 1.5 506 186,000
 Latvia 2,165,165 31,970 299 1.3 150 5,000
 Lithuania 3,505,738 48,232 377 0.8 126 9,000
 Luxembourg 520,672 62,395 297 0.5 594 900
 Netherlands 16,877,351 866,354 10,086 1.2 600 43,000
 Norway 5,147,792 500,244 6,773 1.4 1,328 21,000
 Poland 38,346,279 546,644 10,499 1.9 275 100,000
 Portugal 10,813,834 230,012 4,201 1.9 396 35,000
 Romania 21,729,871 199,950 2,543 1.3 118 66,000
 Slovakia 5,443,583 99,971 988 1.0 180 15,000
 Slovenia 1,988,292 49,506 490 1.0 233 7,000
 Spain 47,737,941 1,406,855 12,732 0.9 270 122,000
 Turkey 81,619,392 806,108 22,618 2.2 298 494,000
 United Kingdom 64,105,700 2,945,146 60,482 2.2 952 174,000
 United States 318,892,103 17,418,925 609,914 3.5 1,891 1,370,000
 NATO 906,002,051 37,480,584 919,917 2.5 934 3,515,000
Population data from CIA World Factbook
GDP data from IMF[3]
Expenditure data (except Iceland) from SIPRI Military Expenditure Database,[4] Icelandic data (2013) from Statistics Iceland[5]
Military personnel data from NATO[6]
a Iceland has no armed forces.

References

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