Short answers, pulled from the story.
The G7 traces its origins to an informal gathering on the 25th of March 1973, when U.S. Treasury Secretary George Shultz convened finance ministers from West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom in the White House library. Japan joined later that year, forming the Group of Five. The first full G7 summit, adding Italy and Canada, took place in 1976 in Dorado, Puerto Rico.
The G7 is an intergovernmental political and economic forum organized around shared values of pluralism, liberal democracy, and representative government. It has no permanent secretariat, no office, and no founding treaty; decisions take the form of joint communiques and coordinated commitments rather than binding legal instruments. A rotating annual presidency sets each year's priorities and hosts the summit.
Russia's membership was suspended in March 2014 following its annexation of Crimea. The G7 convened an emergency meeting at the Catshuis in The Hague on the 24th of March 2014, and the upcoming G8 summit in Sochi was relocated to Brussels. Russia announced it would permanently leave the G8 in January 2017, which took effect in June 2018.
As of 2024, G7 countries account for more than 44% of world nominal GDP and about 30% of world GDP by purchasing power parity. The combined population of G7 member states is roughly 780 million people, or nearly 10% of the world population.
The G7 has spearheaded efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, provided debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries including a commitment to reductions of up to 100% announced in 2005, contributed $300 million toward the Shelter Structure over the Chernobyl reactor, and supported the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. The group also helped launch the G20 at the 1999 summit in Cologne.
Several proposals have circulated, including a D-10 format adding Australia and South Korea, and a T-12 of techno-democracies floated in 2020. At the 49th summit in Hiroshima in 2023, Japan invited South Korea, Australia, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam, the Comoros, the Cook Islands, and Ukraine. Canada's 51st summit in Kananaskis in 2025 included invitations to Ukraine, Australia, and India.