OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
	Founder States (1961) Other Member States
Secretariat	Paris, France
Official languages	English; French
	38 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 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.

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:

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

OECD Media

OECD members applicants map
Payroll and income tax by OECD country
Reports on a wide range of topics for sale at the OECD's Conference Centre Bookshop in 2019
The exterior of the Château de la Muette and the grounds of the OECD Conference Centre
A meeting room in the Château de la Muette