Commonwealth countries: all 56 members

The complete membership list

The table includes all 56 countries in the Commonwealth Secretariat’s member directory, including The Gambia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Small states are full members; population size is not a condition for appearing in the list.

56 countries. Scroll the table for all entries.

All 56 Commonwealth members, alphabetically, with separate July 2026 population projections.

Country ↕	Capital ↕	Population, July 2026 ↕	Directory region ↕
Antigua and Barbuda	Saint John's	94,626	Americas
Australia	Canberra	27,227,096	Oceania
Bahamas	Nassau	404,628	Americas
Bangladesh	Dhaka	177,818,044	Asia
Barbados	Bridgetown	282,724	Americas
Belize	Belmopan	428,644	Americas
Botswana	Gaborone	2,603,388	Africa
Brunei	Bandar Seri Begawan	469,775	Asia
Cameroon	Yaounde	30,640,817	Africa
Canada	Ottawa	40,467,728	Americas
Cyprus	Nicosia	1,382,334	Asia
Dominica	Roseau	65,511	Americas
Eswatini	Mbabane	1,269,859	Africa
Fiji	Suva	937,282	Oceania
Gabon	Libreville	2,647,399	Africa
Gambia	Banjul	2,884,079	Africa
Ghana	Accra	35,697,557	Africa
Grenada	Saint George's	117,362	Americas
Guyana	Georgetown	840,890	Americas
India	New Delhi	1,476,625,576	Asia
Jamaica	Kingston	2,833,403	Americas
Kenya	Nairobi	58,636,412	Africa
Kiribati	Tarawa	138,445	Oceania
Lesotho	Maseru	2,389,336	Africa
Malawi	Lilongwe	22,785,535	Africa
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	36,385,115	Asia
Maldives	Malé	531,517	Asia
Malta	Valletta	549,011	Europe
Mauritius	Port Louis	1,265,059	Africa
Mozambique	Maputo	36,639,851	Africa
Namibia	Windhoek	3,153,246	Africa
Nauru	Yaren	12,101	Oceania
New Zealand	Wellington	5,287,479	Oceania
Nigeria	Abuja	242,431,832	Africa
Pakistan	Islamabad	259,299,791	Asia
Papua New Guinea	Port Moresby	10,947,848	Oceania
Rwanda	Kigali	14,889,693	Africa
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Basseterre	46,992	Americas
Saint Lucia	Castries	180,488	Americas
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Kingstown	99,245	Americas
Samoa	Apia	220,528	Oceania
Seychelles	Victoria	134,959	Africa
Sierra Leone	Freetown	8,996,745	Africa
Singapore	Singapore	5,905,748	Asia
Solomon Islands	Honiara	858,288	Oceania
South Africa	Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial)	65,453,084	Africa
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (administrative), Colombo (commercial)	23,348,315	Asia
Tanzania	Dodoma	72,563,780	Africa
Togo	Lomé	9,930,918	Africa
Tonga	Nuku'alofa	103,291	Oceania
Trinidad and Tobago	Port of Spain	1,513,268	Americas
Tuvalu	Funafuti	9,362	Oceania
Uganda	Kampala	52,761,469	Africa
United Kingdom	London	69,931,528	Europe
Vanuatu	Port Vila	342,564	Oceania
Zambia	Lusaka	22,521,915	Africa

India alone accounts for approximately 52.1% of the population summed across these members. That concentration is why “most members” and “most people in member countries” are different statements. A policy shared by many small states need not describe the experience of most residents of the association.

What the association means

The Commonwealth’s charter describes a voluntary association of independent, equal sovereign states. It provides a framework for cooperation around shared principles and interests. It is not a single country, a common government or a customs union with one universal set of border rules.

Many members have historical connections to the British Empire, but that description is not an exhaustive membership rule. Mozambique and Rwanda, and the more recent entrants Gabon and Togo, demonstrate why a list of former British colonies is not an adequate substitute for the current member directory.

A shared association also does not establish one road-traffic rule, language law or constitutional system. For example, members occur on both sides of our driving-side comparison. These attributes need their own evidence.

Commonwealth members, realms and territories

A Commonwealth realm is a narrower category

A realm recognizes the same monarch as head of state in its own constitutional system. Other Commonwealth members are republics or have their own monarchies. The role of Head of the Commonwealth is distinct from being the head of state of every member.

A republic can remain a member

Changing a country’s constitutional form does not automatically end its Commonwealth membership. The correct source for membership is the association’s member directory, not a list of countries sharing a monarch. This distinction prevents republics from disappearing from an otherwise complete country list.

A British territory is not a separate member country

Dependent territories and sovereign members are different categories. A place can have British constitutional links without being one of the 56 independent states in this table. Conversely, a member state exercises its own sovereignty rather than being a British territory.

How to use the list

For school or geographic research, the capitals, regional filter and country links provide a starting point for exploring the association’s reach. The population column adds scale without implying that membership is ranked or that larger states have a different legal category.

For travel, study or work, membership alone does not establish a universal right of entry, residence or employment. Those arrangements depend on the specific countries and programmes involved. Likewise, an English-speaking label cannot be inferred from Commonwealth membership: the language roles vary between countries and within them.

The most reliable approach is to keep the institutional fact and the practical question separate. Use this page to identify members, then use the relevant country’s official information for the policy or arrangement you need.