International Astronomical Union - National Members


There is great difficulty giving a list of National Members of the International Astronomical Society with their dates of joining as we shall now explain. The first problem is that countries are not fixed over the period during which the International Astronomical Society has existed, for example Yugoslavia joined in 1935 but after the country split into several different countries, Croatia joined in 1994, Macedonia joined in 1998, Serbia joined in 2003 while Slovenia and Bosnia Herzegovina do not appear to have joined. We therefore list countries such as Serbia as joining first in 1935 and again in 2003. There is, however, another problem is giving the list below, namely that the International Astronomical Union is not always consistent in the dates it gives at different times. For example some lists give 1948 for the date when India joined, other lists give 1964.
Country Year     
Belgium 1920
Canada 1920
France 1920
Greece 1920
Japan 1920
United Kingdom 1920
United States 1920
Italy 1920, 1921  
Mexico 1921
Denmark 1922
Netherlands 1922
Norway 1922
Poland 1922
Romania 1922
Spain 1922
South Africa 1922, 1938
Brazil 1922, 1961
Czech Republic 1922, 1993
Slovakia 1922, 1993
Switzerland 1923
Portugal 1924
Egypt 1925
Sweden 1925
United Arab Rep 1925
Argentina1927
Romania 1928
Vatican City 1932
China, Nanjing 1935, 1979
Armenia 1935, 1994
Estonia 1935, 1992
Russian Fed 1935, 1992
Lithuania1935, 1993
Tajikistan 1935, 1993
Ukraine 1935, 1993
Croatia 1935, 1994
Georgia 1935, 1994 Suspended
Serbia 1935, 2003
Australia1939
Chile 1947
Hungary 1947
Ireland 1947
Finland 1948
Germany 1951
Venezuela1953
Israel 1954
Austria 1955
Bulgaria 1957
China, Taipei 1959
Turkey 1961
India 1964
New Zealand 1964
Indonesia1964, 1979
Iran 1969 Suspended
Uruguay 1970
South Korea 1973
Iceland 1988
Malaysia 1988
Peru 1988 Suspended
Saudi Arabia 1988 Suspended
Morocco 1988, 2001 Suspended
Algeria 1988, 2018
Latvia 1996
Bolivia 1998 Suspended
Philippines 2001
Jordan 2001, 2018
Nigeria 2003
Lebanon 2006
Mongolia 2006
Thailand 2006
Costa Rica 2009
Honduras 2009
Panama 2009
Viet Nam 2009
Ethiopia 2012
Kazakhstan 2012
North Korea 2012
Colombia 2015
The following national members were terminated:
Country Year joined
Azerbaijan   1997
Macedonia1935, 1998
Uzbekistan 1999
Cuba 1970, 2001

Last Updated November 2018