There are 54 member countries of the Commonwealth. These are listed below, with the years in which they joined the Commonwealth.

Also listed is their constitutional status. 'Realm' indicates a Commonwealth country which has The Queen as Sovereign, while 'monarchy' indicates a Commonwealth country which has its own monarch as Head of State.

Nauru is a Special Member which does not attend meetings of Commonwealth Heads of Government.

Since membership of the Commonwealth is entirely voluntary, any member can withdraw at any time.

The Republic of Ireland did so in 1949, as did Zimbabwe in 2003.

The largest member of the Commonwealth is Canada, at nearly 10 million square kilometres.

The most populous Commonwealth country is India, with nearly 1.1 billion people.

The smallest member is Nauru, with only 13,000 inhabitants.

The Commonwealth also includes the world's driest and most sparsely populated country: Namibia.