Palanor reads the three main Western sanctions lists every day and counts what is on them. None of the three governments publishes these counts, so every figure here is a Palanor count of the official files.
The lists
- OFAC SDN List (U.S. Treasury): the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, the main U.S. list.
- OFAC Consolidated (non-SDN) list: the other U.S. lists, such as the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications list and the Chinese Military-Industrial Complex list. "OFAC" counts each entity on either list once.
- UK Sanctions List (FCDO): every UK designation. It has been the only UK list since the OFSI Consolidated List closed on 28 January 2026.
- EU Financial Sanctions Files (European Commission): the consolidated list of persons, groups and entities under EU financial sanctions.
The signals
- Listed entries (sanctions.listed.ofac_sdn, .ofac_cons, .ofac, .uk, .eu and .all): entries on the list at each month end, and on the latest day for the month so far.
- New designations per month (sanctions.additions.<list>): entries added each month, by the designation date the list records.
- By programme (sanctions.listed.<ofac|uk|eu|all>.<group>): entries under Russia and Ukraine, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Belarus, Venezuela, Myanmar or Cuba programmes, or under counter-terrorism, narcotics, cyber or human-rights and corruption programmes. Palanor makes the groups from each list's own programme codes.
- By country (sanctions.country.<iso3>, for example sanctions.country.rus): entries on the three lists linked to the country.
How entries are counted
An entry is one listed person, company, vessel or aircraft, counted once however many names, addresses or programmes it has. Nothing is matched across lists, because each list uses its own identifiers: a person on the U.S., UK and EU lists counts once on each, three times in the combined count.
An entry is linked to a country when the list gives an address there, a nationality or citizenship of that country, or puts the entry under a programme named for it. Place of birth and a ship's flag don't count. One entry can count for several countries: a Dubai company under an Iran programme counts for both. Programmes about Ukraine's territorial integrity link no country by themselves, because most of their targets are Russian; their entries count by address and nationality. About a fifth of the EU file gives no country, so those entries appear in the EU total but in no country's count.
A count doesn't say how strict a measure is: an asset freeze, a travel ban and a ban on one kind of trade each count as one entry. Ownership rules also cover companies that are never named.
History
- OFAC SDN List: totals and monthly designations go back to January 2005. Until September 2023 they are rebuilt from OFAC's yearly change files and anchored to archived copies of OFAC's own SDN file. Between those copies the rebuilt change was within 50 entries of OFAC's.
- Everything else: starts in October 2023, when OFAC's delta files begin.
- UK and EU removals: recovered from archived copies of their files, and dated to the first copy without the entry. A removal can therefore show up a few months late.
Where to find it
- Country Dossiers: the country's count, in the Conflict and geopolitics section.
- World view: the count sits on the hover card beside the sanctions flag.
- Charts library: the most-sanctioned countries, new designations per month by list, the SDN List since 2005, and listings by programme. Search "sanctions" in the Library.
Sources
U.S. Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Sanctions List Service (public domain); UK Sanctions List, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (Open Government Licence v3.0); EU Financial Sanctions Files, European Commission (reuse under Decision 2011/833/EU, CC BY 4.0). Only the Official Journal of the EU is authentic for EU measures. Palanor publishes counts only, never names.
Related: [The World view](/help/modules/world-view), [Country Dossiers](/help/modules/country-dossier)