List of members of the United Nations Security Council explained

Membership of the United Nations Security Council is held by the five permanent members and ten elected, non-permanent members.

Being elected requires a two-thirds majority vote from the United Nations General Assembly. Elected members hold their place on the council for a two-year term, with five seats contested in even years and five seats contested in odd years. An outgoing member cannot be immediately re-elected.

Elections usually begin in October for a term starting January 1. Because of the two-thirds majority requirement, it is possible for two evenly matched candidates to deadlock with approximately half the vote each, sometimes needing weeks of negotiations to resolve.

Non-permanent seats are distributed geographically, with a certain number of seats allocated to each of the five United Nations Regional Groups.

Current membership

Permanent members

Country	Regional Group	Member since
	Asia-Pacific Group	1971, replaced the Republic of China
	Western European and Others Group	1945
	Eastern European Group	1991, replaced the Soviet Union
	Western European and Others Group	1945
	Western European and Others Group	1945

Non-permanent members

Country	Regional Group	Term began	Term ends
	African Group (Arab)	2024	2025
Ecuador	Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)	2023	2024
Guyana	Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)	2024	2025
	Asia-Pacific Group	2023	2024
	Asia-Pacific Group	2024	2025
Malta	Western European and Others Group (WEOG)	2023	2024
Mozambique	African Group	2023	2024
	African Group	2024	2025
	Eastern European Group (EEG)	2024	2025
	Western European and Others Group (WEOG)	2023	2024

Regional Groups

The ten non-permanent seats have the following distribution:

African Group: 3 members
Asia-Pacific Group: 2 members
Eastern European Group: 1 member
Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC): 2 members
Western European and Others Group (WEOG): 2 members

In addition, one of the five African/Asian seats is an Arab country, alternating between the two groups. This rule was added in 1967 for it to be applied beginning with 1968.

Electoral timetable

Term beginning in years that are:	Odd	Even
African Group	one member	two members *
Asia-Pacific Group	one member	one member *
Eastern European Group	none	one member
	one member	one member
	two members	none

* The representative of Arab nations alternates between these two spaces.

The odd/even distribution was effectively decided by the January 1946 and December 1965 elections (the first ever election, and the first election after the expansion of seats). For each of the six and four members in the newly created seats, the UN General Assembly voted to grant either a 1-year or 2-year term.

Previous Security Council composition

From 1946 to 1965, the Security Council had six non-permanent members. Due to a lack of African and Asian member states, the seats had the following distribution:

Latin America: 2 members
Commonwealth of Nations: 1 member
Eastern Europe: 1 member
Middle East: 1 member
Western Europe: 1 member

As decolonization increased the number of Asian and African member states without a group, they began to contest other seats: Ivory Coast substituted a member of the Commonwealth in 1964–1965, the Eastern European seat regularly included Asian countries from 1956, Liberia took the place of a Western European country in 1961, and Mali successfully contested the Middle Eastern seat in December 1964 (the Security Council would be expanded before Mali's term began).

An amendment to the UN Charter ratified in 1965 increased the number of non-permanent seats to 10, and the Regional Groups were formalized. The amendment effectively created three African seats and one Asian seat (if treating the Commonwealth seat as a WEOG seat and the Middle Eastern seat as an Asian seat).

Membership by year

Permanent

width=50	Year !	Chinese seat	French seat	Soviet/Russian seat	British seat	American seat
1945		Prov. Gov. of France			United States
1946		French Fourth Republic
1949	Republic of China (Taiwan)	French Fourth Republic
1958	Republic of China (Taiwan)	French Fifth Republic
1971
1991–present			Russian Federation

Non-permanent (1946–1965)

Year	Latin American Seats		Commonwealth Seat	Eastern European & Asian Seat	Middle Eastern Seat	Western European Seat
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965

Non-permanent (1966–present)

The African Union uses an internal rotation system to distribute seats based on its subregions:^[1] ^[2]

1 odd-year seat alternates between Eastern Africa and Southern Africa (only Eastern Africa prior to the creation of the Southern Africa subregion in 1979)
1 even-year seat is allocated to Western Africa
1 even-year seat alternates between Northern Africa (the Arab nation seat) and Central Africa (with one exception at the beginning in 1966)

Arab nations in Eastern Africa, such as Somalia and Djibouti, may sit in the Eastern African seat without affecting any rotations. Thus there may be two Arab nations at once on the Security Council.

Aside from the Asia-Pacific Group also allocating an Arab nation seat every four years (in even years not divisible by 4), other regional groups do not have their own subregional rotation systems.^[3] The Arab nation seat is starred below.

The Western European and Others Group in part contains three caucusing subgroups (Benelux, the Nordic countries, and CANZ), whose candidates informally coordinate with each other.^[4] ^[3] While this has not resulted in a stable rotation system, it effectively guarantees that both seats will never be occupied by a single subgroup at the same time.^[5]

Year	African Group			Asia-Pacific Group	Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)	Western European and Others Group	Eastern European Group
Year	Eastern/Southern	Western	Northern/Central	Asia-Pacific Group	Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)	Western European and Others Group	Eastern European Group
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018						^[6]
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025

List by number of years as Security Council member

This list contains the 138 United Nations member states so far elected to the United Nations Security Council, including the five permanent members, all listed by number of years each country has so far spent on the UNSC. Of all the members, 6 have so far ceased to exist, leaving the list with 132 modern nations. These, combined with the 61 modern nations that have never been elected to the UNSC to date (see Non-members, below), make up the 193 current members of the UN.

Years on the Security Council,, including current year where relevant :

Years	Country	First Year	Most Recent Year	Regional Group	Notes
79		1945	2024	WEOG	Permanent member
79		1945	2024	WEOG	Permanent member
79		1945	2024	WEOG	Permanent member
53		1971	2024	Asia-Pacific	Permanent member
46		1945	1991	E. European	Former permanent member, replaced by Russian Federation
33		1991	2024	E. European	Permanent member
26		1945	1971	Asian	Former permanent member, replaced by People's Republic of China
24		1958	2024	Asia-Pacific
22	Brazil	1946	2023	GRULAC
18	Argentina	1948	2014	GRULAC
16		1950	2022	Asia-Pacific
14	Colombia	1947	2012	GRULAC
14	Pakistan	1952	2013	Asia-Pacific	Elected to serve a two-year term from 2025–2026
13		1959	2017	WEOG
12		1947	2020	WEOG
12		1948	2000	WEOG
12		1977	2020	WEOG	Includes 4 years when the Federal Republic of Germany consisted only of West Germany (but does not include East Germany's 2 years, listed separately below).
11	Poland	1946	2019	E. European
10		1946	2014	WEOG
10	Chile	1952	2015	GRULAC
10		1946	2018	WEOG
10	Nigeria	1966	2015	African
10	Norway	1949	2022	WEOG
10	Panama	1958	2008	GRULAC	Elected to serve a two-year term from 2025–2026
10	Peru	1955	2019	GRULAC
10		1969	2016	WEOG
10		1962	2016	GRULAC
9	Egypt	1946	2017	African (Arab)	Excludes 2 years with the seat held in the name of the United Arab Republic, of which for more than 15 months UAR served as the name of modern-day Egypt
9	Mexico	1946	2022	GRULAC
8	Denmark	1953	2006	WEOG	Elected to serve a two-year term from 2025–2026
8	Ecuador	1950	2024	GRULAC
8	Gabon	1978	2023	African
8	Ghana	1962	2023	African
8	Indonesia	1973	2020	Asia-Pacific
8	Sweden	1957	2018	WEOG
8	Ukraine	1948	2017	E. European	Includes 4 years of membership under the name of ; Ukrainian SSR held its own seat in the General Assembly while being part of the Soviet Union during its 46 years of Security Council membership
8	Tunisia	1959	2021	African (Arab)
7	Algeria	1968	2024	African (Arab)
7	Ireland	1962	2022	WEOG
7	Malaysia	1965	2016	Asia-Pacific
7		1954	2016	WEOG
7	Romania	1962	2005	E. European
7	Turkey	1951	2010	WEOG
7		1950	1989	E. European	Predecessor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia
6	Austria	1973	2010	WEOG
6		1964	2018	GRULAC
6	Bulgaria	1966	2003	E. European
6	Costa Rica	1974	2009	GRULAC
6	Cuba	1949	1991	GRULAC
6	Ethiopia	1967	2018	African
6		1964	2019	African
6	Jordan	1965	2015	Asia-Pacific (Arab)
6	Kenya	1973	2022	African
6	Morocco	1963	2013	African (Arab)
6	Philippines	1957	2005	Asia-Pacific
6	Portugal	1979	2012	WEOG
6	Senegal	1968	2017	African
6	South Africa	2007	2020	African
6		1947	2003	Asia-Pacific (Arab)	Excludes one year (1961) during which the United Arab Republic was a member, for the greater part of which Syria was a member of that union
6	Zambia	1969	1988	African
5	Guyana	1975	2024	GRULAC
5		1996	2024	Asia-Pacific
5	Uganda	1966	2010	African
4	Angola	2003	2016	African
4	Bangladesh	1979	2001	Asia-Pacific
4	Benin	1976	2005	African
4	Burkina Faso	1984	2009	African	For first 7 months of membership of the Security council in 1984 was known as Upper Volta.
4	Cameroon	1974	2003	African
4	Finland	1969	1990	WEOG
4	Greece	1952	2006	WEOG	Elected to serve a two-year term from 2025–2026
4	Guinea	1972	2003	African
4	Hungary	1968	1993	E. European
4	Iraq	1957	1975	Asia-Pacific (Arab)
4	Jamaica	1979	2001	GRULAC
4	Kuwait	1978	2019	Asia-Pacific (Arab)
4	Lebanon	1953	2011	Asia-Pacific (Arab)
4	Libya	1976	2009	African (Arab)
4	Mali	1966	2001	African
4	Malta	1983	2024	WEOG
4	Mauritius	1977	2002	African
4	Nepal	1969	1989	Asia-Pacific
4	Nicaragua	1970	1984	GRULAC
4	Niger	1980	2021	African
4		1986	2007	African
4	Rwanda	1994	2014	African
4		1975	2006	African
4	Togo	1982	2013	African
4	United Arab Emirates	1986	2023	Asia-Pacific (Arab)
4	Uruguay	1965	2017	GRULAC
4		2008	2021	Asia-Pacific
4		1982	1991	African	Now known as Democratic Republic of the Congo
4	Zimbabwe	1983	1992	African
3		1964	1979	E. European	Predecessor of Czech Republic and Slovakia
3	Sierra Leone	1970	2024	African
3	Slovenia	1998	2024	E. European	Was also part of the SFR Yugoslavia during its 7 years of Security Council membership
2	Albania	2022	2023	E. European
2	Azerbaijan	2012	2013	E. European	Was part of the Soviet Union during its 45 years of Security Council membership
2	Bahrain	1998	1999	Asia-Pacific (Arab)
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2010	2011	E. European	Was also part of the SFR Yugoslavia during its 7 years of Security Council membership
2	Botswana	1995	1996	African
2	Burundi	1970	1971	African
2		1974	1975	E. European	Now known as Belarus; Byelorussian SSR held its own seat in the General Assembly while being part of the Soviet Union during its 45 years of Security Council membership
2	Cape Verde	1992	1993	African
2		1960	1961	Asia-Pacific	Now known as Sri Lanka
2	Chad	2014	2015	African
2	Croatia	2008	2009	E. European	Was also part of the SFR Yugoslavia during its 7 years of Security Council membership
2	Czech Republic	1994	1995	E. European	Was also part of Czechoslovakia during its 3 years of Security Council membership
2	Djibouti	1993	1994	African
2	Dominican Republic	2019	2020	GRULAC
2		1980	1981	E. European	Now subsumed into Germany, which has 8 years of Security Council membership since it has included the former territory of East Germany
2	Estonia	2020	2021	E. European	Part of the Soviet Union from 1944 to 20 August 1991
2	Equatorial Guinea	2018	2019	African
2	Gambia	1998	1999	African
2	Guatemala	2012	2013	GRULAC
2	Guinea-Bissau	1996	1997	African
2	Honduras	1995	1996	GRULAC
2		1955	1956	Asia-Pacific
2	Kazakhstan	2017	2018	Asia-Pacific	Was part of the Soviet Union from 26 April 1920 to 25 December 1991
2	Lithuania	2014	2015	E. European	Part of the Soviet Union from 3 August 1940 to 11 March 1990
2	Luxembourg	2013	2014	WEOG
2	Madagascar	1985	1986	African
2	Mauritania	1974	1975	African
2	Mozambique	2023	2024	African
2	Namibia	1999	2000	African
2	Oman	1994	1995	Asia-Pacific (Arab)
2	Paraguay	1968	1969	GRULAC
2	Qatar	2006	2007	Asia-Pacific (Arab)
2	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	2020	2021	GRULAC	Smallest nation to have held a place on the Security Council.^[7]
2	Singapore	2001	2002	Asia-Pacific	Was also part of Malaysia for several months of 1965 during its membership of the Security Council
2	Slovakia	2006	2007	E. European	Was also part of Czechoslovakia during its 3 years of Security Council membership
2	Somalia	1971	1972	African	Elected to serve a two-year term from 2025–2026
2	Sudan	1972	1973	African (Arab)
2		2023	2024	WEOG
2	Thailand	1985	1986	Asia-Pacific
2	Trinidad and Tobago	1985	1986	GRULAC
2		1961	1962	Middle East	Union of Syria and Egypt
1	Yemen	1990	1991	Asia-Pacific (Arab)	Inherited the seat from South Yemen; served the remaining of the term, for one year and seven months.
1		1990	1990	Asian (Arab)	Held the Security Council seat for the first five months of membership, then unified with North Yemen and passed the seat to Yemen.
1	Liberia	1961	1961	African	Served only one year.

Future membership

See main article: 2024 United Nations Security Council election, 2025 United Nations Security Council election and 2026 United Nations Security Council election. The following countries have made known their applications for future United Nations Security Council membership:

Year	Africa	Asia-Pacific	Eastern Europe	Latin America & Caribbean	Western Europe & Others
2026–27	Liberia^[8]	Bahrain^[9]	Latvia,^[10] Montenegro^[11]	?	–
2027–28	?	Philippines^[12] Kyrgyzstan^[13]	–	?	Portugal,^[14] Austria^[15]
2028–29	?	India^[16] Tajikistan^[17]	?	?	–
2029–30	?	Iran, Uzbekistan^[18]	–	?	Australia,^[19] Finland
2030–31	?	?	Croatia^[20]	?	–
2031–32	?	?	–	Guatemala^[21]	?
2032–33	?	?	Armenia^[22]	?	–
2037–38	?	?	–	?	Belgium^[23]

Non-members

The United Nations Charter requires that elections to the Security Council take into account "the contribution of Members...to the maintenance of international peace and security". As a result, many nations, small or otherwise, have never been on the Security Council. The following list is a summary of all countries, currently 61 modern nations^[24] and three historical ones, that have never been a member of the United Nations Security Council. The three historical UN members listed are Tanganyika, Zanzibar, and the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

UN Member state	Regional Group	Security Council membership as part of another entity
	Asia-Pacific
Andorra	WEOG
Antigua and Barbuda	GRULAC	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1632 to 1 November 1981
Armenia	E. European	Was part of the Soviet Union from 29 November 1920 to 25 December 1991
Bahamas	GRULAC	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1717 to 10 July 1973
Barbados	GRULAC	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1625 to 30 November 1966
Belize	GRULAC	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1862 to 21 September 1981
Bhutan	Asia-Pacific
	Asia-Pacific	Was a protectorate of the United Kingdom from 1888 to 1984
Cambodia	Asia-Pacific	Was a colony of France from 1863 to 9 November 1953
Central African Republic	African	Was a colony of France from 1894 to 13 August 1960
Comoros	African	Was a colony of France from 1841 to 6 July 1975
Cyprus	Asia-Pacific	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 5 November 1914 to 16 August 1960
Dominica	GRULAC	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1783 to 3 November 1978
El Salvador	GRULAC
Eritrea	African	Was under the administration of the United Kingdom from 1941 to 1947, then a United Nations Trust Territory from 1947 to 1952, then part of Ethiopia from 1952 to 24 May 1993
	African	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 6 September 1968
Fiji	Asia-Pacific	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1874 to 10 October 1970
Georgia	E. European	Was part of the Soviet Union from 25 February 1921 to 25 December 1991
Grenada	GRULAC	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1763 to 7 February 1974
Haiti	GRULAC
Iceland	WEOG
Israel	None / WEOG	Part of a League of Nations mandate under United Kingdom administration from 25 April 1920 to 14 May 1948
Kiribati	Asian / None	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 12 July 1979
	Asia-Pacific
Kyrgyzstan	Asia-Pacific	Was part of the Soviet Union from 1 February 1926 to 25 December 1991
	Asia-Pacific	Was a colony of France from 1893 to 19 July 1949
Latvia	E. European	Part of the Soviet Union from September 1944 to 21 August 1991
Lesotho	African	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1884 to 4 October 1966
Liechtenstein	WEOG
Malawi	African	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1891 to 6 July 1964
Maldives	Asia-Pacific	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1887 to 26 July 1965
Marshall Islands	Asia-Pacific	Was part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under the administration of the United States from 17 July 1947 to 21 October 1986
	Asia-Pacific	Was part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under the administration of the United States from 17 July 1947 to 3 November 1986
	E. European	Was part of the Soviet Union from 28 June 1940 to 25 December 1991
Monaco	WEOG
Mongolia	Asia-Pacific
Montenegro	E. European	Was part of Yugoslavia from 29 November 1943 to 28 April 1992
Myanmar	Asia-Pacific	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1824 to 4 January 1948
Nauru	Asia-Pacific	Was a United Nations Trust Territory administered by the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand from 1 January 1946 to 31 January 1968
	E. European	Was part of Yugoslavia from 29 November 1943 to 3 April 1993
Palau	Asia-Pacific	Was part of the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under the administration of the United States from 17 July 1947 to 1 October 1994
Papua New Guinea	Asia-Pacific	Was administered by Australia in the case of the Territory of Papua from 1905, the Territory of New Guinea as a League of Nations mandate from 1919 and as a unified Territory of Papua and New Guinea from 1949 until 16 September 1975
Saint Kitts and Nevis	GRULAC	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1713 to 19 September 1983
Saint Lucia	GRULAC	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1803 to 22 February 1979
Samoa	Asia-Pacific	Was a League of Nations mandate under the administration of New Zealand from 17 December 1920 to 25 January 1947, then a United Nations Trust Territory under the administration of New Zealand from 25 January 1947 to 1 January 1962
San Marino	WEOG
	African	Was a colony of Portugal until 12 July 1975
Saudi Arabia	Asia-Pacific	Saudi Arabia was elected in the 2013 election, but declined the seat.^[25]
Serbia	E. European	Was part of Yugoslavia from 31 January 1946 to 27 April 1992
	E. European	Was part of Yugoslavia from 29 November 1943 to 27 April 1992
Seychelles	African	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 29 June 1976
Solomon Islands	Asia-Pacific	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1893 to 7 July 1978
	African	Was part of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, a condominium of the United Kingdom and Egypt until 1 January 1956, then part of Sudan from 1 January 1956 to 9 July 2011
Suriname	GRULAC	Was a colony of the Netherlands from 1667 to 25 November 1975
Tajikistan	Asia-Pacific	Was part of the Soviet Union from 14 October 1924 to 25 December 1991
	Commonwealth Seat	Was a League of Nations mandate under the administration of the United Kingdom from 20 July 1922 to 11 December 1946, then a United Nations Trust Territory under the administration of the United Kingdom until 9 December 1962, then independent until federation with Zanzibar to form Tanzania
Timor-Leste	Asia-Pacific	Was occupied by Indonesia from 7 December 1975 to 31 October 1999
Tonga	Asia-Pacific	Was a protectorate of the United Kingdom from 18 May 1900 to 4 June 1970
Turkmenistan	Asia-Pacific	Was part of the Soviet Union from 13 May 1925 to 8 December 1991
Tuvalu	Asia-Pacific	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1 October 1978
Uzbekistan	Asia-Pacific	Was part of the Soviet Union from 13 May 1925 to 25 December 1991
Vanuatu	Asia-Pacific	Was a Condominium under joint sovereignty of the United Kingdom and France from 1906 to 30 July 1980
	Commonwealth Seat	Was a colony of the United Kingdom from 27 August 1896 to 10 December 1963, then independent until federation with Tanganyika to form Tanzania on 26 April 1964.