Charted: Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Forces by Country

Pallavi Rao
2024-06-15 14:12:47
www.visualcapitalist.com

Charted: Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Forces by Country

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With their sky blue helmets, berets, and badges, the UN Peacekeeping forces are meant to be a symbol of international cooperation in conflict zones around the world.

They’re composed entirely from voluntary contributions from UN Member States—and include police and civilian roles along with military personnel.

The visualization by creator Preyash Shah serves as a primer on the UN Peacekeeping forces. It shows which countries are the biggest personnel contributors, which of them are top funders, and also lists the current ongoing peacekeeping operations. Data for this chart comes from the UN Peacekeeping archives.

Countries by Troop Contributions to UN Peacekeeping (2023)

From South Asia, a trio of countries—Nepal, Bangladesh, and India—are each contributing more than 6,000 personnel to the UN peacekeepers.

A majority of these representatives are soldiers, heavily involved in the four active peacekeeping missions in Africa.

Rank	Country	Personnel
1	Nepal	6,247
2	Bangladesh	6,197
3	India	6,073
4	Rwanda	5,919
5	Pakistan	4,164
6	Indonesia	2,717
7	Ghana	2,664
8	China	2,267
9	Egypt	1,739
10	Morocco	1,715
11	Tanzania	1,544
12	Ethiopia	1,509
13	Senegal	1,194
14	South Africa	1,133
15	Cameroon	1,103
16	Uruguay	1,016
17	Zambia	996
18	Tunisia	988
19	Mongolia	898
20	Italy	872
21	Malaysia	865
22	Malawi	802
23	Mauritania	787
24	Burundi	769
25	Cambodia	734
26	Spain	688
27	Uganda	654
28	France	587
29	Sri Lanka	561
30	South Korea	545
31	Ireland	458
32	Kenya	456
33	Nigeria	421
34	Togo	408
35	Germany	383
36	Jordan	357
37	Fiji	339
38	Benin	319
39	Argentina	292
40	Thailand	289
41	UK	280
42	Viet Nam	274
43	Serbia	271
44	Peru	262
45	Slovakia	244
46	Portugal	239
47	Djibouti	226
48	Bhutan	219
49	Guatemala	218
50	Finland	204
51	Poland	202
52	Congo	189
53	El Salvador	187
54	Austria	177
55	Liberia	161
56	Burkina Faso	156
57	Turkiye	154
58	Côte d’Ivoire	132
59	Greece	103
60	Niger	88
61	Russia	88
62	Gambia	81
63	Brazil	79
64	Guinea	74
65	Paraguay	59
66	Norway	51
67	Romania	49
68	Zimbabwe	49
69	Canada	47
70	Hungary	38
71	Bosnia & Herzegovina	34
72	Armenia	33
73	Brunei Darussalam	29
74	Sweden	29
75	Mali	28
76	Bolivia	27
77	U.S.	27
78	Australia	26
79	Sierra Leone	26
80	Philippines	21
81	Switzerland	19
82	Czech Republic	18
83	Kazakhstan	18
84	Mexico	18
85	Honduras	17
86	Chile	15
87	Kyrgyzstan	15
88	Chad	14
89	Croatia	13
90	Netherlands	13
91	Ecuador	11
92	Dominican Republic	10
93	Namibia	10
94	Moldova	10
95	Malta	9
96	Denmark	8
97	New Zealand	8
98	Slovenia	7
99	Estonia	6
100	Montenegro	6
101	Colombia	5
102	Madagascar	5
103	Albania	4
104	Japan	4
105	Latvia	4
106	Belgium	3
107	Algeria	2
108	Angola	2
109	Azerbaijan	2
110	Botswana	2
111	Cyprus	2
112	Papua New Guinea	2
113	Timor-Leste	2
114	Lithuania	1
115	North Macedonia	1
116	Qatar	1
117	Sao Tome & Principe	1
118	Tajikistan	1
N/A	World	66,839

Source: Troop & Police Contributors, United Nations Peacekeeping.

However, these three countries—and the others in the top 15—are outliers when looking at overall troop contributions.

Of the 118 countries currently volunteering forces to the UN, 103 of them have fewer than 1,000 UN Peacekeepers.

The U.S. for example currently has only 27 personnel in the peacekeepers, as of November 2023. Of them, 21 are staff officers, four are “experts on mission,” and two are police; none are troops.

Other countries that have zero “boots on the ground” include: Canada, Japan, and Australia.

Countries by Financial Contributions to UN Peacekeeping (2021)

While all UN member states are mandated to contribute to the peacekeeping budget, the share of financial contributions is similarly unevenly distributed.

Most of the world’s largest economies are also the top funders to the UN peacekeeping forces.

For the financial year 2020–2021, the U.S. contributed nearly $2 billion to the UN peacekeepers, followed by China ($1 billion), Japan ($563 million), Germany ($401 million) and the UK ($381 million).

Rank	Country	Region	Contribution	Estimated Value (USD Millions)
1	U.S.	North America	27.89%	$1,835
2	China	Asia	15.21%	$1,000
3	Japan	Asia	8.56%	$563
4	Germany	Europe	6.09%	$401
5	UK	Europe	5.79%	$381
6	France	Europe	5.61%	$369
7	Italy	Europe	3.30%	$217
8	Russia	Asia	3.04%	$200
9	Canada	North America	2.73%	$180
10	South Korea	Asia	2.26%	$149
N/A	RoW	N/A	19.52%	$1,284
N/A	Total	N/A	100%	$6,579

Source: How We are Funded, United Nations Peacekeeping.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council carry a greater financial responsibility to the peacekeeping budget, in accordance with their security council privileges.

Ranked: Current UN Peacekeeping Missions by Personnel (2023)

As of November, 2023, there are 11 active UN peacekeeping missions in operation. There have been more than 60 peacekeeping operations since 1948; the first one was established in Palestine to oversee the truce between Arab and Jewish communities.

Rank	Location	Established	UNPK Personnel
1	Central African Republic	2014	18,448
2	South Sudan	2011	18,412
3	DRC	2010	17,971
4	Lebanon	1978	10,385
5	Sudan & South Sudan	2011	3,388
6	Syria	1974	1,331
7	Cyprus	1964	1,017
8	Western Sahara	1991	468
9	Israel & Palestine	1948	375
10	Kosovo	1999	353
11	India & Pakistan	1949	104

Source: Where We Operate, United Nations Peacekeeping.

A key tenant of the missions is to protect civilians and human rights, and several of them have failed in this regard, including the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the decade of Balkan civil wars.

And peacekeepers themselves have also garnered less than stellar reputations, after perpetrating sexual abuse in the Central African Republic and Congo, and causing a cholera epidemic in Haiti in 2010.

The post Charted: Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Forces by Country appeared first on Visual Capitalist.

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