Statistics on National Spiritual Assemblies (NSAs) refers to the number of National Spiritual Assemblies, which are approximately national levels of institutional administration of the Bahá'í Faith, in the world. NSAs exist in most member states of the United Nations (UN) but also in some nations that are not recognized by the UN. Generally there are two levels of legal status of a National Spiritual Assembly: when it is established and recognized by the administrative order of the Bahá'í Faith, and second when it attains or loses a legal recognized status in the country wherein it is established. This fluctuation of legal status is notable mostly in Muslim countries that used to have NSAs in the 1920s to 40s but have lost them since the 1950s due to restrictions on religious activity other than Islam, Christianity and Judaism (see Persecution of Bahá'ís). Additionally some NSAs come into existence due to the splitting off from a National Assembly that has multi-national jurisdiction from a Bahá'í point of view. For example, originally the National Spiritual Assemblies of the United States and Canada, were in fact a single institution though now are separate. Other times NSAs come into existence when the nation they were established in has itself split into separate nations (for example when the Soviet Union split into Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan)
There are no rules about when a National Spiritual Assembly can be established in a country by the Baha'is, but generally speaking it is a statement of the complexity of the community: that there are enough Bahá'ís in the country, enough Local Spiritual Assemblies, a need for the Bahá'ís in the country to own properties beyond the jurisdiction of any particular Local Spiritual Assembly, and that a National Assembly with jurisdiction across the whole country from a Bahá'í organizational point of view is required.
Chronology
Below are dates of the establishment and recognition of National Spiritual Assemblies from the Bahá'í point of view. Other than in predominantly Muslim counties, countries where there are no NSAs include most where most any religious institution is illegal such as in North Korea. In 2008 there were 184 National Spiritual Assemblies and in 2006, there are 192 United Nations member states. Most of the below list comes from The Bahá'í Faith: 1844-1963: Information Statistical and Comparative, Including the Achievements of the Ten Year International Bahá'í Teaching & Consolidation Plan 1953-1963
1923: British Isles, Austria & Germany, India
1924: Egypt
1925: United States of America and Canada
1931: Iraq
1934: Australia and New Zealand, Persia
1948: Canada
1953: Italy and Switzerland
1956: Central & East Africa, North West Africa, South & West Africa
1957: Alaska; Arabia; New Zealand; North East Asia (Japan), Pakistan, South East Asia; Mexico and the Republics of Central America; The Greater Antilles; The Republics of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela; The Republics of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay & Bolivia; Scandinavia and Finland; the Benelux Countries; The Iberian Peninsula.
1958: France
1959: Austria, Burma, South Pacific, Turkey,
1961: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina.
1962: Belgium, Ceylon, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy
1964 Hawaii, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam
1967 Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Laos, Belize, Sikkim
1969 Papua New Guinea
1972 Afghanistan
1972 Singapore, Iceland
1972 Republic of Ireland
1974 Hong Kong, South East Arabia
1975 Niger
1977 Greece
1978 Burundi, Mauritania, the Bahamas, Oman, Qatar, the Mariana Islands, Cyprus
1980: Transkei
1981 Namibia, and Bophuthatswana; the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, and Bermuda; Tuvalu. re-formation in Uganda
1984: Cape Verde Islands, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, French Guiana, Grenada, Martinique, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Yemen, Canary Islands
1990: Macau
1991 Czechoslovakia, Romania & Soviet Union
1992: Greenland, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus & Moldova; Russia, Georgia & Armenia; Central Asia, Bulgaria, Baltic States, Albania, Poland, Hungary, Niger (re-elected) (as many new NSAs came into existence in this one year as all the NSAs that existed in 1953.)
1994: Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Slovenia & Croatia,
1995: Eritrea, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, Sicily.
1996: Sao Tome & Principe, Moldova, Nigeria
1999: Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia
2004: Iraq reformed
2008: Vietnam reformed