what countries are part of the british commonwealth

Here’s how flags, currency, and its anthem will now change Elizabeth and Commonwealth

More from Express Explained | Britain has a new monarch. Most living residents of the Commonwealth realms have never experienced a direct relationship with Britain. The smaller Commonwealth realms represent the last vestiges of Britain’s colonial empire, a thread that binds the British monarch to about 150 million people outside of the UK. The Commonwealth is home to 2.5 billion people, a third of the world’s population, the bulk of whom live in the Indian subcontinent. The Commonwealth Games - which were hosted by India in 2010 and the latest edition of which was completed in Birmingham, England last month - are pretty much the only association that ordinary Indians make with the Commonwealth, even though there are wider aspects of intergovernmental cooperation within the grouping. The other five - Brunei Darussalam, Lesotho, Malaysia, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Tonga - have their own monarchs.įor the wider Commonwealth, the most visible uniting feature is the Commonwealth Games, the multi-sport international competition that is held every four years in one of the member countries. Of the remaining 41 member states of the Commonwealth, 36 are republics - this group includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

The British monarch - now King Charles III, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II - is the head of state of these countries. They are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.

Fourteen of these 56 countries - along with the UK - constitute the “Commonwealth realms”.

What countries are part of the british commonwealth