Commonwealth realms

(sourced from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_realm in 2023)

A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state that has Charles III (the King of the United Kingdom) as its monarch and head of state. Each realm is equal with the others. King Charles III succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as monarch of the Commonwealth realms immediately upon her death on 8 September 2022.

As of 2023, the current 15 Commonwealth realms are:

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, United Kingdom

All are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, an intergovernmental organisation of 56 independent member states, 52 of which were formerly part of the British Empire. Charles III is also Head of the Commonwealth of Nations, a non-constitutional role.

At her accession in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II was the monarch of seven independent nations: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Since then, new realms have been created through the independence of former colonies and dependencies, and some realms have become republics. Barbados was the most recent realm to become a republic, doing so in November 2021.

Realms within Commonwealth countries

Note that two Commonwealth countries have their own realm structure:

• New Zealand has a composite structure, the Realm of New Zealand, with four countries and one unpopulated zone
• Likewise the UK in the realm sense encompasses UK, Isle of Man and the two Channel Islands states

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