There are several countries that are not members.
Vatican City is not a member for ecclesiastical reasons and has full observer status.
The Cook Islands and Niue do not for economic reasons and trust their International representation to New Zealand in the General Assembly.
Western Sahara remains in dispute as to its legal status. The United Nations believes in its right to self-determination.
Palestine, originally The Palestine Liberation Organization, is an observer of the United Nations General Assembly as a "non-member entity". The UN refers to its territory as the "Occupied Palestinian Territory".
Kosovo has recognition from 69 of the 192 members of the UN, but it is believed that Russia would prevent its application to the UN.
The Republic of China or Taiwan, is excluded because China will not allow its acceptance by the UN Security Council where it holds a permanent veto right.
Taiwan's 23 million citizens are not represented based on the question of its soverignty. Mainland China maintains that Taiwan is a part of China. Western Sahara is in dispute with Morocco, the Cook Islanders and Niue receive their representation via New Zealand by choice, and Vatican City while eligible for membership maintains only observer status. The country of Kosovo is also not part of the UN. On February 17th 2008, they declared their independence from the country of Serbia (Europe) but has not gained complete international recognition yet to allow it to become a member of the United Nations.
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There are four countries that are not members.
Vatican City is not a member for ecclesiastical reasons and has full observer status.
Kosovo has recognition from 69 of the 192 members of the UN, but it is believed that Russia would prevent its application to the UN.
The Republic of China or Taiwan, is excluded because China will not allow its acceptance by the UN Security Council where it holds a permanent veto right.
Taiwan's 23 million citizens are not represented based on the question of its soverignty. Mainland China maintains that Taiwan is a part of China.
South sudan as it has only recently declared independence and therefore has not had the time to process an application to the UN
Palestine is processing an application also.
There are only three countries that are not part of the UN, which are Kosovo, Taiwan, and Vatican City. The United Nations was founded in 1945.
The Vatican City, Kosovo, and Taiwan are the only independent states that are not currently members.
http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/numbercountries.htm
There are three countries not belonging. They are:
Kosovo
Taiwan
Vatican City (it is a country, although it says City, and it is the smallest country in the world!!)
Kosovo, Taiwan, and Vatican City are the only 3 countries in the world who are not members of the UN.