The Newest Countries in the World: Dates, Votes and UN Seats

What counts as a "new country"?

There is no single register of countries, so "newest" needs a yardstick. The most practical one is membership of the United Nations: a state is admitted by the General Assembly, by a two-thirds vote, after a recommendation from the Security Council, where any of the five permanent members can block it. All 193 current members passed that test. Beelad covers those 193 plus Vatican City, Kosovo and Taiwan, which makes 196 entries. Palestine, a UN observer state, is not in Beelad's list.

A second point trips up many lists: a country can join the UN late without being new, and a country can lose territory without becoming a new state. Three cases show the difference:

• Serbia is not a new country. When Montenegro left in 2006, Serbia declared itself the legal successor of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and kept its UN seat, which dates from 1 November 2000.
• Switzerland joined the UN on 10 September 2002, later than most countries, but it is one of Europe's oldest states. It had simply stayed out of the organization.
• Russia took over the Soviet Union's seat in 1991, and Germany (1990) and Yemen (1990) were mergers of existing members, not new creations.

With those set aside, eight states have been created since the end of the early-1990s wave. The table puts them side by side.

The newest countries at a glance

"Days to UN seat" is counted from the independence date to the admission date. Eritrea needed only four days and South Sudan five; Timor-Leste waited 130.

South Sudan (2011): the newest UN member

South Sudan's independence came out of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended Sudan's second civil war. The agreement promised the south a vote, which was held from 9 to 15 January 2011. Turnout was 97.58% of 3,851,994 registered voters, and 98.83% of valid votes chose secession. Independence followed on 9 July 2011, and the UN admitted the new state five days later, on 14 July, as its 193rd member. No state has joined since.

It is not a small country. Beelad's page for South Sudan shows 619,745 km² and 11,483,374 people (UN estimate for 1 July 2023), more than Beelad's figure for metropolitan France (551,695 km²). Its capital is Juba and its currency, the South Sudanese pound, has the ISO code SSP.

Kosovo (2008): independent, but not in the UN

Kosovo's parliament declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. The territory had been under a UN mission (UNMIK) since Security Council Resolution 1244 of 10 June 1999. Serbia does not accept the declaration and still regards Kosovo as part of its territory. In an advisory opinion of 22 July 2010, the International Court of Justice found that the declaration did not violate international law; the opinion did not rule on whether Kosovo is a state.

How many countries recognize Kosovo depends on who is counting. As of October 2026, three figures are in circulation:

• About 120, the figure Kosovo's government uses.
• At least 110 of 193 (about 57%), the independent tally kept on Wikipedia, last changed on 19 December 2025 when the Bahamas recognized Kosovo. Kenya, Sudan and Syria recognized it in 2025.
• 84, the figure Serbia's government uses, which subtracts states it says have withdrawn recognition. Some reported withdrawals were later denied or reversed: Palau withdrew in 2019 and resumed recognition in 2023.

Non-recognizers include Serbia, two permanent Security Council members (China and Russia), India, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and five EU members (Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain). Because UN admission needs a Security Council recommendation, a Russian or Chinese veto can block it whatever the General Assembly count. Kosovo has nonetheless joined the IMF and the World Bank, and it uses the euro. Its code XK is a user-assigned code, not an official ISO 3166-1 entry.

Montenegro (2006): a vote decided by a threshold

Montenegro did not secede from Serbia; it left the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, a loose union formed in 2003 from what remained of Yugoslavia. The European Union, which brokered the process, set two conditions for the 21 May 2006 referendum: turnout of at least 50% and at least 55% of valid votes in favor. Turnout was 86.49%. The assembly declared independence on 3 June, and the UN admitted Montenegro on 28 June 2006. It joined NATO in 2017.

Timor-Leste (2002): independence from a UN administration

Timor-Leste was a Portuguese colony until 1975. Fretilin declared independence on 28 November 1975, and Indonesia invaded on 7 December and occupied the territory for the next 24 years. In a UN-run referendum on 30 August 1999, 78.50% of voters rejected autonomy within Indonesia, on a turnout of 98.93%. Indonesia withdrew, and from 25 October 1999 the territory was governed by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), set up by Security Council Resolution 1272. Sovereignty passed from that UN administration to the new government on 20 May 2002, and the UN admitted Timor-Leste on 27 September 2002.

Palau, Eritrea, Czechia and Slovakia (1993–1994)

Palau

After the Second World War, Palau became part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, administered by the United States. On 1 October 1994 the trusteeship ended and a Compact of Free Association with the US took effect; the US State Department dates its recognition of Palau's independence to that day. With 17,727 people (UN estimate for 1 July 2023), Palau is one of the smallest countries in the world.

Eritrea

Eritrea's armed struggle against Ethiopian rule began in 1961 and ended in May 1991. In a UN-observed referendum on 23–25 April 1993, 99.83% voted for independence, the highest share of any vote in this article. Independence is dated 24 May 1993, and the UN admitted Eritrea four days later.

Czechia and Slovakia

Czechoslovakia split peacefully at midnight on 31 December 1992, in what is called the Velvet Divorce. The Federal Assembly approved the dissolution by constitutional act on 25 November 1992, with no referendum. Neither state claimed to be the sole successor, so both applied to the UN as new members and were admitted together on 19 January 1993. Their two-letter codes changed too: see the guide to ISO country codes.

The 1990–92 wave

The eight states above are the latest arrivals, but most of the post-Cold War change happened in just three years. Namibia became independent from South African rule on 21 March 1990. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined the UN on 17 September 1991, eight more former Soviet republics on 2 March 1992 and Georgia on 31 July 1992. From Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were admitted on 22 May 1992, and North Macedonia on 8 April 1993.

Not every 1990s admission was a new country. Liechtenstein (1990), San Marino (1992), Andorra and Monaco (1993) were long-established states that chose to join, and Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga (1999) had been independent for years before taking a seat. Since 2000 only six states have joined: Serbia (as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and Tuvalu in 2000, Switzerland and Timor-Leste in 2002, Montenegro in 2006 and South Sudan in 2011.

Could there be a next one?

The closest candidate is Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea. In a non-binding referendum in 2019, 97.7% voted for independence. The result only takes effect if Papua New Guinea's parliament ratifies it; parliament began considering it on 27 August 2026, with no vote date set. Bougainville's leaders are aiming for full sovereignty in 2030. Other movements exist elsewhere, but none has a recognized process that is as far along. For territories that are self-governing without being sovereign, see the guide to autonomous territories and dependencies.

What Beelad shows for these countries

Each of the countries in the table has a Beelad page with its capital, population, area, currency, calling code, ISO codes and time zone. The pages do not list independence or UN admission dates, so this article is the place on Beelad for those. Kosovo has a page because Beelad includes it alongside Vatican City and Taiwan; that inclusion is a coverage choice and does not take a position on its status.

Key takeaways

• The newest UN member is South Sudan, admitted on 14 July 2011. No state has joined since.
• Kosovo declared independence later than Montenegro, in 2008, but it is not a UN member. Recognition counts range from 84 to about 120 depending on the source.
• Serbia and Switzerland often appear on "newest country" lists by mistake: Serbia is a continuing state and Switzerland is an old state that joined the UN late.
• Montenegro cleared its 55% threshold by 2,095 votes.
• Timor-Leste received its sovereignty from a UN administration in 2002, not directly from Indonesia.
• For dates that can change, such as recognitions, always check how recent the figure is.