OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation of countries. Member countries of OECD all have a democratic system of government. They also accept the principle of a free economy. A country has a free economy when its government does not control the economic activities of its citizens and companies.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Logo
Founder States (1961)   Other Member States
Secretariat	Paris, France
Official languages	English French
Membership	38 states  Australia  Austria  Belgium  Canada  Chile  Colombia  Costa Rica  Czech Republic  Denmark  Estonia  Finland  France  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Iceland  Ireland  Israel  Italy  Japan  Latvia  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Mexico  Netherlands  New Zealand  Norway  Poland  Portugal  Slovakia  Slovenia  South Korea  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland  Turkey  United Kingdom  United States
Leaders
• Secretary-General	Mathias Cormann
Establishment
• as the OEECa	16 April 1948
• reformed as the OECD	30 September 1961
Website www.OECD.org
Organisation for European Economic Co-operation.

The OECD started 1948 as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC). The Second World War had just ended three years before in 1945. Some countries of Europe came together to form OEEC to help each other re-build their industry and other things destroyed in the Second World War. Later on, some non-European countries also joined this organisation. In 1960, OEEC changed its name, and it became OECD: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in Paris.

Secretaries General

Secretary-General of the OECD^[1]

No.	Secretary-General	Time served	Country of origin	Notes
1	Thorkil Kristensen	30 September 1961 – 30 September 1969	Denmark
2	Emiel van Lennep	1 October 1969 – 30 September 1984	Netherlands
3	Jean-Claude Paye	1 October 1984 – 30 September 1994	France
—	Staffan Sohlman (interim)	1 October 1994 – November 1994	Sweden	[2][3]
3	Jean-Claude Paye	November 1994 – 31 May 1996	France	[4]
4	Donald Johnston	1 June 1996 – 31 May 2006	Canada
5	José Ángel Gurría	1 June 2006 – 31 May 2021	Mexico	[5]
6	Mathias Cormann	1 June 2021 – present	Australia	[6]

Members

OECD has thirty-eight member countries,^[7] of which 19 became members in 1961. These countries are:

1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Canada
4. Denmark
5. France
6. Germany
7. Greece
8. Iceland
9. Ireland
10. Luxembourg
11. Netherlands
12. Norway
13. Portugal
14. Spain
15. Sweden
16. Switzerland
17. Turkey
18. United Kingdom
19. United States

19 countries joined OECD after 1961. The names of these countries (with the year they joined in brackets), are:

1. Italy (1962)
2. Japan (1964)
3. Finland (1969)
4. Australia (1971)
5. New Zealand (1973)
6. Mexico (1994)
7. Czechia (1995)
8. Hungary (1996)
9. South Korea (1996)
10. Poland(1996)
11. Slovakia (2000)
12. Chile (2010)
13. Estonia (2010)
14. Israel (2010)
15. Slovenia (2010)
16. Latvia (2016)
17. Lithuania (2018)
18. Colombia (2020)
19. Costa Rica (2021)