Members of the Commonwealth of Nations by date first joined the organisation:

1930s

• United Kingdom (1931)
• Canada (1931)
• South Africa (1931; left in 1961 but rejoined 1994)
• Irish Free State (1931; left in 1949)
• Newfoundland (1931; became province of Canada in 1949)

1940s

• Australia (1942; invited 1931 but ratified 1942)
• New Zealand (1947; invited 1931 but ratified 1947)
• India (1947)
• Pakistan (1947; left in 1972 but rejoined 1989)
• Sri Lanka (1948)

1950s

• Ghana (1957)
• Malaysia (1957)
• West Indies Federation (1958; split up in 1962)

1960s

• Nigeria (1960; suspended in 1995 but readmitted 1999)
• Cyprus (1961)
• Tanganyika (1961; merged with Zanzibar to form Tanzania in 1964)
• Sierra Leone (1961)
• Jamaica (1962)
• Trinidad and Tobago (1962)
• Uganda (1962)
• Zanzibar (1963; merged with Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964)
• Kenya (1963)
• Tanzania (1964)
• Malawi (1964)
• Malta (1964)
• Zambia (1964)
• The Gambia (1965)
• Singapore (1965)
• Guyana (1966)
• Botswana (1966)
• Lesotho (1966)
• Barbados (1966)
• Mauritius (1968)
• Swaziland (1968)

1970s

• Samoa (1970)
• Tonga (1970)
• Fiji (1970; left in 1987 but rejoined 1997)
• Bangladesh (1972)
• The Bahamas (1973)
• Grenada (1974)
• Papua New Guinea (1975)
• Seychelles (1976)
• Solomon Islands (1978)
• Tuvalu (1978)
• Dominica (1978)
• St Lucia (1979)
• St Vincent and The Grenadines (1979)
• Kiribati (1979)

1980s

• Vanuatu (1980)
• Zimbabwe (1980; left in 2003)
• Antigua and Barbuda (1981)
• Belize (1981)
• Maldives (1982)
• St Kitts and Nevis (1983)
• Brunei (1984)

1990s

• Namibia (1990)
• Mozambique (1995)
• Cameroon (1995)
• Nauru (1999)