Sean Thorp, age 15, of McAllen, Texas, for his question:
HOW MANY COUNTRIES ARE IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS?
The Commonwealth of Nations is a loose voluntary association of political entities that give symbolic or actual allegiance to the British crown, or did so at one time or another. These entities include 49 sovereign nations and several dependencies.
The sovereign Commonwealth nations are Great Britain, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Bangledesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Canada, Cyrus, Dominica, Fiji, the Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Nauru New Zealand, Nigeria, Papau New Guinea, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Union of South Africa, that is now the Republic of South Africa, withdrew from the Commonwealth in 1961 as did Pakistan in 1972.
The Republic of Ireland is associated with the Commonwealth of Nations for commercial purposes but is not a member.
Relations between Great Britain and the other Commonwealth countries are maintained through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and the foreign offices of the individual nations. Members countries exchange high commissioners whose status is equivalent to that of ambassadors.
A Commonwealth secretariat, established in 1965, provides a clearinghouse for factual information of common concern to member countries and assists existing agencies, official and unofficial, in promoting commonwealth cooperation.
In those countries that do not have their own heads of state, the British sovereign is represented by a governor general.
The designation Commonwealth of Nations was first used officially at the Imperial Conference in 1926, having been applied to "the group of self governing communities composed of Great Britain and the Dominions." This definition was later embodied in the Statute of Westminster, enacted by the British Parliament in December 1931.
The Commonwealth has no official policymaking body and the only formal political consultations among the member governments are the periodic meetings of their prime ministers to discuss common problems.
Five of the members are constitutional monarachies: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Lesotho, Swaziland, Tonga and Malaysia.
Members of the Commonwealth of Nations are found in four areas of the world: Europe, Africa, Australiasia and Oceania and the Western Hemisphere. There are 21 members in the Western Hemisphere, 21 in Australia and Oceania, 17 in Africa and only five in Europe.