#unfinance

Western states often paint a picture of the UN as a “bloated” bureaucracy with a huge, extravagant budget. The US is constantly calling for UN reform and politicians argue that the UN budget is too large and a drain on their countries’ resources, even though in 2010, the UN Regular Budget was less than the budget of Tokyo’s Fire Department.

The chart above shows the number of countries that have fully paid their regular budget assessments to the UN by January 31st, the end of the 30 day due period allowed under UN Financial Regulations. It also shows the total payment’s percentage of the regular budget from 1991-2012. In 2012, only 26 member states fully paid their regular budget assessments by the payment deadline, January 31st. Altogether, the 26 states paid only 13.38 percent of the total. Among them are four or the five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway. Of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia is the only state to have fully paid its regular budget assessments on time.

To see a detailed list of countries who have paid on time and in full, and to see their total payment’s percentage of the regular budget, click here.