Which EU Countries Pay the Most to the UN?

Key Takeaways

• Germany pays the most to the UN system of all 27 EU countries. It paid $3.35 billion in 2025.
• Germany’s lead among EU countries rests on voluntary earmarked contributions. These make up 62.0% of Germany’s payments.
• Voluntary funds make up 73.8% of what EU countries pay to the UN system. Mandatory dues make up the other 26.2%.
• Sweden pays the most voluntary core contributions among EU countries. UN agencies can spend voluntary core contributions wherever needs are greatest.

Payments to UN System Organizations Among EU Countries

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Governments pay UN system organizations through mandatory dues and voluntary funds. These organizations record three types of contributions from governments:

• Mandatory dues (assessed contributions): payments that each government owes under an organization’s founding rules.
• Voluntary core contributions: optional payments that come with no conditions on how the money is used. The agency decides where the money goes.
• Voluntary earmarked contributions (non-core): optional payments that the donor directs to a specific use. For example, a donor can pay for food aid in one named country.

The UN’s mandatory dues pay for its regular budget and peacekeeping operations.

Voluntary funds pay for work by agencies such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF. Each government chooses how much to pay.

Germany Pays the Most to the UN System of All 27 EU Countries

Germany pays the most to the UN system of all 27 EU countries. It paid $3.35 billion in 2025.

Germany’s payments are nearly twice as high as Sweden’s ($1.70 billion). Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, and Italy together account for 70.3% of all payments from EU countries.

Mandatory dues follow capacity to pay. The formula considers national income, population size, and external debt. As a result, Germany pays the highest mandatory dues among EU countries because it has the largest economy in the EU. It produced 23.8% of the EU’s economic output (GDP) in 2025.

In line with the capacity to pay rule, Latvia, Malta, and Estonia pay the least to the UN system since they are among the smallest economies in the EU. Malta produced 0.1% of the EU’s economic output in 2025.

Which EU Countries have the largest and smallest economies? ->

Voluntary Funds Make Up 73.8% of What EU Countries Pay to the UN

Voluntary funds make up 73.8% of what EU countries pay to the UN system. Mandatory dues make up the other 26.2%.

Some UN agencies receive no mandatory dues at all. The World Food Programme receives no share of mandatory dues, and all government support for the programme is voluntary.

Voluntary funds also dominate the finances of the whole UN system. Earmarked contributions made up 61% of the UN system’s revenue from all sources in 2023.

The mix of mandatory dues and voluntary funds differs widely between EU countries. Mandatory dues make up more than three-quarters of the payments from five EU countries:

• Lithuania: 85.9%
• Latvia: 85.0%
• Romania: 82.3%
• Poland: 76.5%
• Czechia: 75.6%

Sweden, Denmark, and Luxembourg show the opposite pattern. Mandatory dues make up less than 11% of the payments from these three EU countries:

• Luxembourg: 5.4%
• Sweden: 7.0%
• Denmark: 10.4%

Sweden, Denmark, and Luxembourg were also three of the four OECD donor countries that gave more than 0.7% of their national income as foreign aid in 2025.

Sweden Pays the Highest Voluntary Core Contributions to the UN Among 27 EU Countries

Germany ($2.54 billion) and Sweden ($1.58 billion) pay the most voluntary contributions to the UN system among the 27 EU countries in 2025. Voluntary earmarked contributions make up most of that difference.

Germany ranks first, and Sweden ranks second among EU countries in voluntary earmarked contributions:

• Germany: $2.08 bil. (62.0% of its payments)
• Sweden: $855.7 bil. (50.3% of its payments)

Meanwhile, Sweden ranks first, and Germany ranks second among EU countries in voluntary core contributions:

• Sweden: $727.9 mil. (42.8% of its payments)
• Germany: $462.6 mil. (13.8% of its payments)

Core funding is shrinking at UN development agencies such as UNICEF. It fell from 29.6% of their funding in 2019 to 16.5% in 2022.

Core money works like an allowance. The agency decides where it is needed most.

Meanwhile, earmarked money works like a gift card. It can be spent only on what the donor chose.

If a new crisis breaks out, an agency can send core money there right away. Earmarked money stays tied to the purpose the donor chose. That limits how well agencies can plan their work.