UN Security Council Vetoes by Country (1946-2026)
Key Findings
About This Dataset
UN Security Council Vetoes by Country (1946-2026)Russia, counted together with the former Soviet Union, has cast by far the most vetoes at 130 - most of them during the early Cold War, when the USSR was diplomatically isolated in the Council. The United States is second with 89, a number that has grown steadily since the 1970s, with a large share used to shield Israel from Council action. The United Kingdom (29), China (20) and France (16) have used the power far more sparingly, and both France and the UK have not cast a veto in decades. The heavy concentration of vetoes among just two members illustrates how the veto has functioned mainly as a tool of great-power rivalry rather than routine diplomacy.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- United Nations / UN Security Council records
- Coverage
- 5 entities · 5 observations
- Measure
- Total UN Security Council Vetoes Cast (1946-2026)
- Last updated
- 13 July 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
- Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.
Data Sources & References
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