The newest countries in the UN

The United Nations has 193 member states today. Here is who joined last, when the big waves came, and why the date a country joined is not the date it was born.

Updated October 29, 2026 · 4 sources

The newest member is South Sudan. It joined on July 14, 2011, and no country has joined since.¹ These are the 15 most recent members:

Joined	Country	Continent
July 14, 2011	South Sudan	Africa
June 28, 2006	Montenegro	Europe
September 27, 2002	Timor-Leste	Asia
September 10, 2002	Switzerland	Europe
November 1, 2000	Serbia	Europe
September 5, 2000	Tuvalu	Oceania
September 14, 1999	Kiribati	Oceania
September 14, 1999	Nauru	Oceania
September 14, 1999	Tonga	Oceania
December 15, 1994	Palau	Oceania
July 28, 1993	Andorra	Europe
May 28, 1993	Eritrea	Africa
May 28, 1993	Monaco	Europe
April 8, 1993	North Macedonia	Europe
January 19, 1993	Czechia	Europe

Joining is not the same as becoming a country

These are the dates the UN lists, which say when a country joined, not when it became independent. Switzerland, for example, only joined on 10 September 2002.¹ According to the Swiss government, it is the only state that joined the UN following a popular vote.²

Two of the 195 countries on this site are not members at all. The Holy See (Vatican City) and Palestine are the UN's two non-member observer states.³ Read why we count 195.

The big waves

49 of today's members have been members since 1945, the year the UN came into existence.⁴ After that, the busiest years were 1960, when 17 countries joined, 16 of them in Africa, and 1955, with 16. In 1992, 13 countries joined: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.¹