Commonwealth realm
The Commonwealth realms, shown in pink.
A Commonwealth realm is any one of 16
sovereign states within the Commonwealth of
Nations that each have Elizabeth II as their
respective monarch.[1][2] These countries
have a combined area totalling 18.8 million
km² (excluding Antarctic claims), and a com-
bined population of 132 million;[3] all but
about 2 million live in the six most populous
states, namely the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand,
and Jamaica.
Fourteen of the current, and all former,
realms were once British colonies
that
evolved into independent states, the excep-
tions being the United Kingdom (UK) itself
and Papua New Guinea, which was formed in
1975 as a union of the former German New
Guinea – which had been administered by
Australia as an international trusteeship be-
fore independence – and the former British
New Guinea – which had legally been the
British possession of Papua, administered on
the UK’s behalf by Australia since 1905. The
first realms to emerge were colonies that had
already previously attained the status of a
self governing Dominion within the British
Empire. For a time, the older term of Domin-
ion was retained to refer to these non-British
realms, even though their actual status had
changed with the granting of full legislative
independence. The word is still sometimes
used today, though increasingly rarely, as the
word realm was formally introduced with the
proclamation of Elizabeth II in 1952,[1] and
acquired legal status with the adoption of the
modern royal styles and titles by the individu-
al countries. The qualified term Common-
wealth realm is not official, and has not been
used
in
law; rather,
it
is a
term of
convenience for distinguishing this group of
realms from other countries in the Common-
wealth that do not share the same monarch.
Current Commonwealth
realms
Country
Monarchy Date[*
1]
Queen’s Title Roy
Sta
An-
tigua and
Barbuda
Monarchy
of Antigua
and
Barbuda
1981
Elizabeth the
Second, by the
Grace of God,
Queen of An