Countries and territories at the Commonwealth Games: Full list

Started in 1930 as the British Empire Games, the present-day Commonwealth Games is a multi-sport competition, designed like the Olympics, where only the Commonwealth of Nations and their territories are eligible to participate.

The Commonwealth of Nations or simply the Commonwealth, as it stands now, is a voluntary group of 54 sovereign nations, most of which were former colonies of the erstwhile British Empire or its dependants

The members, though, have changed over the years due to global political implications and voluntary withdrawals for additions to the group.

For example, undivided India, under British rule, participated at the 1934 and 1938 Games as one team. After India’s partition in 1947, India and Pakistan both participated at the 1954 CWG. Similarly, Bangladesh started competing at the Commonwealth Games from 1978 after its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Hamilton 1930, the inaugural Commonwealth Games edition, saw 11 countries and territories – hosts Canada, Australia, Bermuda, British Guiana, Canada, England, Ireland, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales – take part.

The number of participating countries and territories have steadily gone up since. Six nations, Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales, have been part of all the 21 Commonwealth Games editions so far.

A total of 71 different teams participated in the last Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia in 2018. Besides the nations themselves, a number of dependent territories of these countries compete under their own flag, bringing up the total number of teams.

Anguilla, for instance, is an internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom but competes at the Commonwealth Games as a separate team.

A total of 72 countries and territories featured at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The sole addition was the Maldives, who left the Commonwealth in 2016 and hence, missed Gold Coast 2018. The Asian country, however, rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations in 2020 and competed at Birmingham.

The Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, UK starts on July 28 and ends on August 8.

Commonwealth Games 2022: List of competing countries and territories 

1. Anguilla
2. Antigua and Barbuda
3. Australia
4. Bahamas
5. Bangladesh 
6. Barbados
7. Belize
8. Bermuda
9. Botswana
10. British Virgin Islands
11. Brunei
12. Cameroon
13. Canada
14. Cayman Islands
15. Cook Islands
16. Cyprus
17. Dominica
18. England
19. Eswatini
20. Falkland Islands
21. Fiji
22. Ghana
23. Gibraltar
24. Grenada
25. Guernsey
26. Guyana
27. India
28. Isle of Man
29. Jamaica
30. Jersey
31. Kenya
32. Kiribati
33. Lesotho
34. Malawi
35. Malaysia
36. Maldives
37. Malta
38. Mauritius
39. Montserrat
40. Mozambique
41. Namibia
42. Nauru
43. New Zealand
44. Nigeria
45. Niue
46. Norfolk Island
47. Northern Ireland
48. Pakistan
49. Papua New Guinea
50. Rwanda
51. Samoa
52. Scotland
53. Seychelles
54. Sierra Leone
55. Singapore
56. Solomon Islands
57. South Africa
58. Sri Lanka
59. St Helena
60. St Kitts and Nevis
61. St Lucia
62. St Vincent and the Grenadines
63. Tanzania
64. The Gambia
65. Tonga
66. Trinidad and Tobago
67. Turks and Caicos Islands
68. Tuvalu
69. Uganda
70. Vanuatu
71. Wales
72. Zambia