Affiliates Statistics - The International Federation of Automatic Control

At the date of July 13, 2026, the IFAC database contains 7793 approved affiliates. In total IFAC has affiliates in 113 countries/regions, 45 of which have a National Member Organization (NMO) and 5 have an Associate Member Organization (AMO). As expected, most affiliates (7217) are from countries/regions in which IFAC has a National Member Organization (NMO), 134 affiliates are from countries/regions with an Associate Member Organization (AMO).

On August 24, at the World Congress in Busan, the NMOs will gather at the triennial General Assembly. At this occasion the affiliates statistics focus on these countries. In the following table the countries/regions are named after their international ISO 3-letter code.

The column #Affiliates gives the number of approved Affiliate entries in the database. Note that affiliation is approved by Secretariat that checks the relevance of the affiliation to avoid trivially erroneous requests of irrelevant intrusions. It also avoids duplicate affiliations.

The column #Connected gives the number of affiliates that have connected to the current database Portal affiliates.ifac-control.org. The difference between #Affiliates and #Connected indicates the number of people who were in the former database which was active until 2023, who did not connect to the new Portal, and who were not removed from the database. Such people are typically long-standing affiliates who have occupied some role in the IFAC structure. Profiles of former affiliates with no roles have been erased.

The column #Roles gives the number of affiliates that have or have had roles in the IFAC structure. These roles range from being a TC member to more involved volunteer work such as being member of a Board, of and Executive Committee, or being Council member. The higher this value is, the more this NMO has contributions to the IFAC activities.

The last column #Public gives the number of profiles that can be consulted when connected to the affiliate’s portal. IFAC cherishes individual choice concerning privacy of date. Affiliates can choose which of their data is public and which is not. The higher this #Public value is, the more people from this NMO show willingness to participate to IFAC activities.

To illustrate how this table can be interpreted, take the row for Korean Republic (KOR), the host country of the 2026 World Congress. The number of affiliates is 277, which is high in comparison to other NMOs, given the size of the country. The number of connected affiliates is 245 which shows that most affiliates are active colleagues. Only 32 affiliate profiles are in the database for historical reasons prior to 2023. 84 affiliates have or have had a role in IFAC. Subtracting the 32 historical ones, 52 are active affiliates with roles. It most probably approximately maps to the 55 people who have made their profile at least partly public. There is room for encouraging the 190 connected people with private profiles to be more visible.

ISO	#Affiliates	#Connected	#Roles	#Public
AUS	130	92	72	23
AUT	107	69	62	28
AZE	8	2	7	1
BEL	76	65	31	19
BGR	62	23	56	10
BRA	208	172	86	69
CAN	153	121	74	29
CHE	83	71	32	16
CHL	38	32	12	10
CHN	940	798	242	199
CZE	55	34	31	10
DEU	467	394	160	98
DNK	52	40	18	14
ESP	223	197	87	77
EST	11	7	8	5
FIN	50	38	27	12
FRA	699	559	368	223
GBR	275	211	126	49
HRV	23	16	12	3
HUN	61	34	49	16
IND	182	153	30	51
IRL	52	27	35	10
ISR	31	25	18	6
ITA	429	364	206	124
JPN	399	290	195	68
KOR	277	245	84	55
MEX	102	91	26	21
MKD	5	2	4	2
NLD	239	210	100	67
NOR	83	79	27	16
PER	12	10	4	2
POL	111	84	55	37
PRT	96	85	43	41
ROU	127	86	79	39
RUS	81	49	50	15
SGP	23	18	9	2
SVK	38	30	20	14
SVN	24	18	15	8
SWE	130	115	41	32
TUN	22	15	14	7
TUR	173	141	64	44
UKR	7	5	2	1
USA	797	626	348	149
XKX	14	3	12	1
ZAF	42	34	18	15

+25% increase
As of June 9, 2026, the IFAC database contained 7579 approved affiliates. Compared to the latest published figures in pared to the latest published figures in the December 2025 Newsletter issue, it is a major increase by +25%. With no surprise the growth is in conjunction with the 2026 World Congress registrations and the incentive to benefit from a fee reduction when being affiliate.

Profiles pending approval
472 more profiles are pending. The affiliation approval is done manually to avoid irrelevant registrations (for example some people mistake IFAC with the federation of accountants) and duplicate profiles. The delay in approvals does not impact the 2026 World Congress registration. Colleagues are encouraged to fill all relevant information in their profiles, such as links to their professional webpages. The provided information helps the Secretariat in validating the relevance of the affiliation. Note that, as stated in the IFAC Constitution, English is the working language of IFAC. Names not written in non-Latin characters are not readable by Secretariat and hence cannot pass validation.

60% ghost profiles
Only 2981 profiles are either ‘Web Public’ (visible to any visitor) or ‘IFAC Public’ (visible to any logged affiliate). All others are ‘Private’. Unfortunately, these profiles do not benefit from any visibility: people cannot be contacted for their skills in their fields of interest, young researchers are not visible to potential recruiters, brilliant colleagues are ignored for IFAC prizes, potential IFAC volunteers and officials remain unknown. All affiliates are invited to connect to their profile, check that the data is up-to-date, and make public at least their names and fields of interest.

TC members nominations
Incoming TC Chairs are currently nominating TC members for the 2026-2029 triennium. In this task, they browse the ‘IFAC Public’ database. All ‘Private’ profiles are disregarded. It is timely to make yourself public. If you have any difficulty in doing so, please contact [email protected].

Top 10 Countries/Regions
The countries/regions are listed in the order of number of affiliates. The first figure is the number of affiliates in the database, the second is the number those who are visible for an IFAC affiliate visiting the portal. China (862, 160), United States (786, 143), France (685, 213), Germany (464, 96), Italy (428, 122), Japan (393, 62), United Kingdom (268, 48), Republic of Korea (239, 51), Netherlands (238, 66).

Top 10 Technical Committees
The TCs are listed in the order of number of affiliates having selected that TC in their fields of interest. The first figure is the number of such affiliates in the database, the second is the number of those who are visible for an IFAC affiliate visiting the portal. TC2.1 Control Design (2100, 562), TC2.3 Non-linear Control Systems (2075, 553), TC2.4 Optimal Control (2034, 522), TC2.2 Linear Control Systems (1765, 478), TC1.1 Modelling, Identification and Signal Processing (1759, 462), TC2.5 Robust Control (1664, 423), TC4.3 Robotics (1649, 429), TC1.2 Adaptive and Learning Systems (1488, 390), TC7.5 Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles (1286, 356), TC1.5 Networked Systems (1036, 271).

As of the date of November 23, 2025, the IFAC database contains 6071 affiliates. Compared to statistics from the previous issue of the Newsletter it is a drop of about 2600, which is due to the promised process of removing profiles of people who never connected since mid 2023. The database still contains 1629 profiles coming from the old database. These were not erased yet as they have, or had, roles in the IFAC structure. Among all affiliates, 52% have or had roles. Roles are for example being a Technical Committee member, but range also up to President and to awardee of IFAC Prizes and Medals.

Among the 6071 affiliates, 1167 are ‘Web public’, that is visible for any visitor of the affiliates.ifac-control.org portal. 2401 profiles are ‘IFAC public’, that is visible to all affiliates who connected to the Portal. There is room for improvement.

Note that it is requested to be an IFAC affiliate to become a Technical Committee member. The process of selecting TC members for the 2026-2029 triennium shall start in early 2026. It is highly recommended to be registered and to make one’s profile at least ‘IFAC public’ in order to be part of the Technical Committees. If you have any difficulty in doing so, please contact [email protected].

As of the date of September 23, 2025, the IFAC database contained 8707 affiliates, which is an increase of +774 affiliates compared to last year. 4393 of the affiliates (51%) are people who were listed in the old database that was maintained manually before 2023, but did not connect yet to the new interactive portal. This data is considered as outdated and will be removed in a near future.

4314 of the affiliates (49%) registered to the new IFAC Portal, which is an increase of +1356 compared to last year. This figure combines the +774 new affiliates and those who were in the old list of affiliates and activated their registration in the new portal. IFAC has the possibility to make statistics with the data from these registered affiliates, statistics which enable to better understand the interests of the control community.
2359 of the registered affiliates (55%) are “IFAC public” meaning that at least their names are visible to the other affiliates when connected to the portal. Most often they share more information such as their affiliation, their fields of interest and their contacts. These IFAC public affiliates can interact about their fields of interest.
1134 of the “IFAC public” affiliates (48%) are “Web public” meaning that at least their names are visible to any visitor of the IFAC portal. Doing so they advertise IFAC affiliation to non-affiliates and contribute to promote Automatic Control.

New affiliates register regularly and are accepted manually by the IFAC Secretariat after a quick verification aiming at avoiding (a) duplicate profiles for the same person, (b) artificial affiliations of people outside of the Automatic control field. For fast processing of your affiliation, it is recommended that you provide a link to a web page that illustrates your activities in the field.

At the date of August 6, 2025, the IFAC database contains 8607 affiliates. 49% of these (4205) registered to the new IFAC Portal and thereby provide useful data about IFAC volunteers around the globe. New affiliates register regularly and are accepted manually by the IFAC Secretariat after a quick verification aiming at avoiding (a) duplicate profiles for the same person, (b) artificial affiliations of people outside of the Automatic control field. For fast processing of your affiliation, it is recommended that you provide a link to a web page that illustrates your activities in the field.

Affiliates are invited to select among all provided data, what data is kept Private (visible only to Secretariat for statistics), made IFAC Public (visible to all registered affiliates) or Web Public (visible to any visitor of the IFAC Portal). Among all registered affiliates 1118 names are Web Public, 1188 are IFAC Public and the remaining 1899 are Private. Affiliates are encouraged to make at least their name public in order to facilitate exchanges among IFAC people.

The technical activities in IFAC are organized in areas composed of technical committees (TCs) grouped under coordinating committees (CCs) and whose scope is defined by a group of keywords. Affiliates are invited to select their fields of interest described as a list of keywords. This allows to evaluate the importance of TCs within IFAC. The figures below are the numbers of registered affiliated interested in the areas of the CCs and TCs.

CC1 Signals and Systems: 2245 (53%)
TC1.1 Modeling, Identification and Signal Processing: 1249
TC1.2 Adaptive and Learning Systems: 1040
TC1.3 Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems: 553
TC1.4 Stochastic Systems: 522
TC1.5 Networked Systems: 700

CC2 Design Methods: 2461 (59%)
TC2.1 Control Design: 1426
TC2.2 Linear Control Systems: 1244
TC2.3 Non-linear Control Systems: 1456
TC2.4 Optimal Control: 1404
TC2.5 Robust Control: 1139
TC2.6 Distributed Parameter Systems: 452

CC3 Computers, Cognition and Communication: 980 (23%)
TC3.1 Computers for Control: 521
TC3.2 Computational Intelligence in Control: 615
TC3.3 Telematics: Control via Communication Networks: 228

CC4 Mechatronics, Robotics and Components: 1481 (35%)
TC4.1 Human Machine Systems: 775
TC4.2 Mechatronic Systems: 505
TC4.3 Robotics: 1078

CC5 Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Enterprises: 1140 (27%)
TC5.1 Manufacturing Plant Control: 501
TC5.2 Management and Control in Manufacturing and Logistics: 590
TC5.3 Integration and Interoperability of Enterprise Systems: 204
TC5.4 Large Scale Complex Systems: 544

CC6 Process and Power Systems: 1190 (28%)
TC6.1 Chemical Process Control: 431
TC6.2 Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing: 182
TC6.3 Power and Energy Systems: 652
TC6.4 Fault Detection, Supervision & Safety of Technical Processes – SAFEPROCESS: 409

CC7 Transportation and Vehicles Systems: 1592 (38%)
TC7.1 Automotive Control: 722
TC7.2 Marine Systems: 293
TC7.3 Aerospace: 594
TC7.4 Transportation Systems: 523
TC7.5 Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles: 898

CC8 Bio- and Ecological Systems: 867 (21%)
TC8.1 Control in Agriculture: 341
TC8.2 Biological and Medical Systems: 409
TC8.3 Modeling and Control of Environmental Systems: 363
TC8.4 Biosystems and Bioprocesses: 254

CC9 Social Systems: 1174 (28%)
TC9.1 Economic, Business, and Financial Systems: 266
TC9.2 Systems and Control for Societal Impact: 327
TC9.3 Control for Smart Cities: 316
TC9.4 Control Education: 724
TC9.5 Technology, Culture and International Stability (TECIS): 141

As of the date of June 6, 2025, the IFAC database contains 8399 affiliates. 47% of these (3975) registered to the new IFAC Portal and thereby provide useful data about IFAC volunteers around the globe.

New affiliates register regularly and are accepted manually by the IFAC Secretariat after a quick verification aiming at avoiding (a) duplicate profiles for the same person, (b) artificial affiliations of people outside of the Automatic control field. For fast processing of your affiliation, it is recommended that you provide a link to a web page that illustrates your activities in the field.

In the October 2024 issue of the Newsletter, we reported about the main countries/regions in IFAC in terms of registered affiliates. As the number of registrations grows the list of countries with more than 100 affiliates has increased: USA 471, France 391, Germany 279, Italy 265, Japan 213, China 206, Spain 149, UK 133, Netherlands 132, Brazil 123, Turkey 121.

Affiliates are invited to select among all provided data, what data is kept private (visible only to Secretariat for statistics), made IFAC public (visible to all registered affiliates) or Web public (visible to any visitor of the IFAC Portal). In July 2024 the IFAC Council voted that all people having official roles in IFAC higher than TC Member shall have their names automatically made at least IFAC Public. Among all registered affiliates 26% are Web Public, 29% are IFAC Public and the remaining 45% are Private. In terms of IFAC Public (including Web Public) affiliates, the same list of countries ranks as follows: France 153, USA 123, Italy 100, Germany 77, China 59, Spain 55, Brazil 53, Japan 53, Netherlands 53, UK 34, Turkey 38. The figures drop as we look at only Web Public affiliates: France 91, Italy 62, USA 60, Netherlands 29, Spain 29, Brazil 28, China 28, Germany 24, UK 22, Japan 21, Turkey 17.

In the December 2024 issue of the Newsletter, we reported in detail about the number of registered affiliates interested in the topics of each Technical Committee. While the numbers increase in all topics, the percentages remain stable illustrating the fact that the sample of registered colleagues is rather representative. CC2 (59%) and CC1 (54%) are the most selected Coordinating Committees with more than half of affiliates being interested in the core methodological areas. All other CCs are fully relevant as they attract interest from 21% (CC8) up to 38% (CC7) of registered affiliates. In the February 2025 issue of the Newsletter, we reported about the gender statistics and in the latest April 2025 issue we reported about the career stage of affiliates. These statistics show strong variations depending on countries.

As of the date of 8 April 2025, the IFAC database contains 8328 affiliates. 47% of these (3891) registered to the IFAC Portal and thereby provide useful data about IFAC volunteers around the globe.

Career stage is not a mandatory field in the affiliate profile. In average only 43% of the registered affiliates indicated the career stage information. Among the top 20 countries/regions in terms of number of registered people, the response rate to this question ranges from 20% (Japan) and 33% (Korea, Austria) to 64% (Brazil) and 67% (India).

Average – Among all affiliates having filled this career stage field, 27% are in early stage, 45% are in middle stage and 28% are in the late stage of their career. Countries/regions such as Australia (26% early, 52% middle, 22% late), Brazil (25%, 42%, 34%), France (22%, 48%, 30%), Italy (29%, 45%, 26%), Mexico (25%, 54%, 21%) are close to this average distribution.

Early/Late – Countries/regions with the highest rates of people in early stage of the career are Turkey (47%, 39%, 14%) and India (42%, 48%, 10%). These are also in the group of countries with the lowest rates of people in the late stage of the career together with Austria (30%, 60%, 10%), China (38%, 50%, 12%). Countries/regions with the lowest rates of people in early stage of their career are Romania (7%, 43%, 50%), Portugal (6%, 44%, 50%) and Spain (7%, 60%, 33%).

Equally distributed – The countries/regions that have lowest rates of people in the middle stage of the career are also those with almost equally distributed proportions of people in the three stages of the career: Canada (31%, 38%, 31%), Netherlands (37%, 37%, 27%), Sweden (36%, 33%, 30%), UK (34%, 36%, 30%), USA (33%, 37%, 30%). Other countries/regions in this top 20 group of countries/regions in terms of registered affiliates are Germany (38%, 39%, 23%), Japan (14%, 55%, 31%), Korea (31%, 45%, 24%).

As of the date of Feb. 17, 2025, the IFAC database contains 8258 affiliates. 46% of these (3809) registered to the new IFAC Portal and thereby provide useful data about IFAC volunteers around the globe.

Gender is not a mandatory field in the Affiliates profile. In average 63% of the registered affiliates filled the gender information, among them 15% are female. 10 affiliates selected “other”.

Surprisingly the percentage of affiliates filling the gender information is not uniform among countries. Considering the top 10 countries in terms of number of registered affiliates, the willingness to fill the gender data ranges from 80% for Brazil to 49% for USA. Meanwhile, the percentages of female affiliates also vary significantly from 4% in Japan and 8% in Germany to 26% in Italy and 27% in Netherlands.

As of 26 November 2024, the IFAC database contains 8087 affiliates. 43% of these (3510) have registered in the new IFAC Portal and thereby provide useful data about IFAC volunteers around the globe:

59% of registered affiliates (2083 out of the 3510) have fields of interest within CC2 on Design Methods,
54% are interested in CC1 on Systems and Signals,
38% are with CC7 on Transportation and Vehicle Systems,
35% are with CC4 on Mechatronics, Robotics and Components,
29% are with CC6 on Process and Power Systems,
27% are with CC5 on Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Enterprises,
25% are with CC9 on Social Systems,
23% are with CC3 on Computers, Cognition and Communication,
21% are with CC8 on Bio- and Ecological Systems.

The TCs attracting the largest number of people are:

TC2.3 (1236), TC2.1 (1212), TC2.4 (1175), TC1.1 (1055), TC2.2 (1051).
The next TCs in the range from 700 to 1000 affiliates are TC2.5 (964), TC1.2 (892), TC4.3 (861), TC7.5 (746).
Follows a group of TCs with approximately 600 affiliates: TC4.1 (648), TC9.4 (633), TC1.5 (612), TC7.1 (588), TC6.3 (549).
The next TCS scale quite uniformly around 350 to 500 affiliates: TC7.3 (505), TC3.2 (492), TC5.2 (473), TC5.4 (468), TC1.3 (463), TC3.1 (449), TC1.4 (426), TC7.4 (421), TC5.1 (396), TC4.2 (392), TC2.6 (385), TC6.1 (380), TC6.4 (356), TC8.2 (349).
The remaining ones are TC8.3 (301), TC8.1 (283), TC9.2 (278), TC7.2 (264), TC9.3 (252), TC8.4 (217), TC9.1 (215), TC3.3 (203), TC6.2 (161)

As of 29 September 2024, the IFAC database contains 7933 affiliates. 37% of these (2958) have registered in the new IFAC Portal and thereby provide useful data about IFAC volunteers around the globe: 15% are female, 7% from industry, 28% in early stage of their career. Top countries of registered affiliates are USA (326), France (299), Germany (214), Italy (199), Japan (160), China (136), Spain (122), Brazil (106), UK (103).

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