Who were neutral during world war 2?

Answer 1

There weren't many countries that were neutral. Some started out neutral but were forced, one way or another, into joining the war. Some examples of these are:

1. USA - technically neutral until attacked by Japan in December 1941. However, the USA had been quietly supporting Britain and other Allied countries before entering the war.
2. USSR - despite participating in the attack on Poland in 1939, the Soviets were neutral until attacked by Germany in the summer of 1941.
3. Netherlands and Belgium were neutral at the start, but like in World War I, their neutrality was violated by Germany, and the German military went through them to invade France (since France had powerful defenses on their borders with Germany but not with Belgium).
4. Brazil intended to remain neutral but after some of their ships were attacked by German submarines, they joined the Allies.
5. most of South America started out neutral but joined later. Since many South American countries were ruled by pro-fascist dictators, they tended to want to avoid fighting Germany and Italy. However, by the time the war ended, all of them had joined the Allies (Argentina and Chile waited until the war was almost over).

Others were able to stay out of the war but generally leaned towards one side or the other. Some examples are:

1. Spain - suffered a brutal civil war that ended just as World War II was starting; a Fascist political party won the civil war and took control of Spain. Despite being friendly towards Germany and Italy, Spain refused to join the war, although they did have some military units "volunteer" to help the Axis, especially the "Blue Division", which participated in the invasion of the USSR.
2. Sweden - despite being totally surrounded by German-controlled countries, Sweden was able to stay out of the war due to having great quantities of metal to sell- it was easier for Germany to buy metal from Sweden than to conquer Sweden and try to get the metal themselves. Plus Sweden has a long history of disliking Russia/USSR (and vice versa), so they gave some help to Germany's invasion of the USSR. Once Germany was losing the war and could no longer threaten Sweden, the Swedes started supporting the Allies more.
3. Turkey - was able to stay neutral for most of the war, although there was some concern that they might join the Axis, since they had fought on Germany's side in World War I and, like Sweden, had a long history of hating Russia/USSR. This did not come to pass, and in the last few weeks of the war (when the war was virtually over), Turkey was successfully pressured to declare war on Germany.
4. Portugal - despite a long-standing alliance with Britain, Portugal stayed neutral during the war. Like Spain, Portugal had an authoritarian government that was sympathetic towards the Axis, but would not join their side. Portugal also became known for the espionage that both sides carried out there (supposedly the British agent Ian Fleming partly used his experiences there as inspiration for his famous James Bond character).
5. Switzerland was neutral throughout the war, although they were somewhat hostile to both sides, since both sides had an annoying tendency to ignore their neutrality. Germany had considered invading but decided it would have been too difficult and not worth the cost. Additionally, Swiss banks famously helped hide Nazi assets as they fled Germany.
6. Some isolated countries like Afghanistan and Tibet (which had broken away from China before the war) were able to stay neutral.

Answer 2

Sweden, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Afghanistan, Estonia, Lithuania, North Yemen & Portugal.

Answer 3

I believe Switzerland was a neutral country