Which countries are members of Interpol?

Interpol comprises 196 member states, making it the world’s largest international law enforcement agency. Its membership includes nearly every country across Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, the Middle East, and Oceania. Notable members include the USA, the UK, the UAE, France, China, Japan, Brazil, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and many others. Each member nation has its own National Central Bureau responsible for exchanging information and coordinating cross-border operations.

Joining Interpol requires a two-thirds majority vote from the General Assembly, the organization’s supreme governing body, which meets annually to decide on admissions, budget, and policy matters. Once admitted, a country is bound by Interpol’s Constitution and Rules on the Processing of Data, including the obligation under Article 3 of the Statute not to use the organization’s channels for matters of a political, military, religious, or racial character. Membership does not require a country to be a member of the United Nations, and a handful of territories with disputed international status have historically been excluded or suspended on this basis.

Every member state designates a National Central Bureau, typically housed within its federal police or interior ministry, which serves as the sole point of contact for transmitting and receiving requests through Interpol’s I-24/7 secure communications network. In the UAE, this function sits within the Ministry of Interior, coordinating with Dubai Police and the other emirates’ security agencies on incoming notices and diffusions. The quality and independence of a country’s National Central Bureau has a direct bearing on how reliably notices are screened before circulation, which is part of why some member states’ requests attract closer scrutiny than others.

While all 196 members hold formal voting rights and equal access to Interpol’s databases, the actual reliability of notices issued by a given country varies considerably depending on that state’s judicial independence and track record with the organization’s oversight body. Requests originating from countries with documented patterns of using notices for political ends are more likely to face challenges before the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files, regardless of the requesting state’s formal membership status. This distinction matters for anyone assessing whether a notice tied to a particular country is likely to withstand legal scrutiny.

A very small number of jurisdictions remain outside Interpol altogether, generally due to lack of international recognition or unresolved disputes over statehood, meaning residents or nationals of those territories cannot rely on the organization’s cooperation mechanisms in either direction. This has limited practical relevance for most individuals, but it can matter in specific cross-border disputes involving unrecognized or partially recognized territories.