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How much does the UN cost?
The regular budget of the UN is some $1.3 billion per year. It pays for UN activities, staff and basic infrastructure but not peacekeeping operations, which have a separate budget. All States of the UN are obligated by the Charter – an international treaty – to pay a portion of the budget. Each State's contribution is calculated on the basis of its share of the world economy.

How much does the entire UN system spend each year?
The UN system spends some $12 billion a year, taking into account the United Nations, UN peacekeeping operations, the programmes and funds, and the specialized agencies, but excluding the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Just over half of this amount comes from voluntary contributions from the Member States; the rest is received from mandatory assessments on those States.

The United Nations and its agencies, funds and programmes – mainly the UN Development Programme, the World Food Programme, the UN Children’s Fund and the UN Population Fund – spend nearly $6.5 billion a year on operational activities for development, mostly for economic, social and humanitarian programmes to help the world’s poorest countries. In addition, the World Bank, the IMF and IFAD provide billions more annually in loans that help to eradicate poverty, foster development and stabilize the world economy.

How does the UN budget compare with those of other organizations?
To put in perspective the UN's expenditures – some $1.3 billion per year for the UN alone and about $12 billion for the entire UN system – compare them with expenditures by governments and by other bodies:

* The administrative budget of the 15-country European Community amounts to some $4.5 billion.

* The two states in the U.S. with the smallest budgets – Wyoming and South Dakota – have a budget of more than $2 billion each.

* The World Health Organization (WHO), which has reduced or eliminated the incidence of a number of diseases worldwide, including smallpox and polio, has an annual budget of $421 million – about what it cost to build the new American Airlines Center, a basketball/hockey facility in Dallas, Texas.

* The annual budget for the city of Zurich is $3.1 billion.

* Metropolitan Tokyo's Fire Department has a budget of $1.8 billion.

* The University of Minnesota has a budget of $1.9 billion.

* The budget of the New York City Board of Education for fiscal year 2001 was more than $12.4 billion.

*World military expenditures – some $800 billion a year – would pay for the entire UN system for more than 65 years

How are membership dues calculated?
The primary criterion applied by Member States, through the General Assembly, is a country’s capacity to pay. This is based on estimates of their gross national product (GNP) and a number of adjustments, including for external debt and low per capita incomes. The percentage shares of each Member State in the budget are decided by the General Assembly based on this methodology and range from a minimum of 0.001 per cent to a maximum of 22 per cent, and a maximum of 0.01 per cent from least developed countries. For 2002, the 43 countries contributing at the minimum rate were assessed $11,104 each. The largest contributor – the United States – was assessed $283,076,321.

Top 10 Member States in assessment for the UN regular budget, 2002

Are the dues unfairly distributed?
Since the assessments are based on gross national product (GNP), richer countries generally pay more and poorer countries less, although there are some exceptions (e.g., Brazil pays more than Liechtenstein even though its per capita income is much lower, because its total GNP is much higher).

Beginning in 1974, the Assembly fixed a maximum rate of 25 per cent for any contributor – later reduced to 22 per cent from 2001. So far, this ceiling has benefited only the United States, whose share of total membership GNP is approximately 27 per cent. Without this ceiling, its share would be even higher since, like other countries with high per capita income, it would have been required to contribute to the cost of reductions for the countries with low per capita income. The rates of other Member States are raised to make up for the difference.

The country with the second-highest assessed contribution is Japan, which was assessed some 19.7 per cent for 2002, or $218.4 million. The 15 members of the European Union together contribute some 35 per cent of the budget. The scale of contributions is completely reviewed every three years on the basis of the latest national income statistics to ensure that assessments are fair and accurate.

Top 10 per capita contributors to the UN regular budget, 2002

What can be done to make Member States fulfill their financial obligations?
Under the UN Charter (Article 19), a Member State can be deprived of its vote in the General Assembly if its arrears equal or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the previous two years. Various Members have suffered this sanction over the years

The United States is the largest contributor to the UN, providing roughly 22 percent of the organization’s administrative budget and about 27 percent of its peacekeeping budget in 2004.

The UN cannot force member nations to pay their dues. Many nations have failed to pay their full dues and have cut their voluntary contributions, causing the organization to fall into considerable debt. In 2004, members owed the UN nearly $2.4 billion, with almost half of that owed by the United States alone.