Commonwealth of Nations
The land area of the Commonwealth nations is about , or about 21% of the total world land area. The three largest Commonwealth nations by area are Canada at , Australia at , and India at . In 2016, the Commonwealth members had a combined gross domestic product of over $9 trillion, 78% of which is accounted for by the four largest economies: United Kingdom ($2.629 trillion), India ($2.256 trillion), Canada ($1.529 trillion), and Australia ($1.258 trillion).
Commonwealth of Nations membership criteria
The formation of the Commonwealth of Nations is dated back to the Statute of Westminster, an Act of the British Parliament passed on 11 December 1931. The Statute established the independence of the Dominions, creating a group of equal members where, previously, there was one (the United Kingdom) paramount. The solitary condition of membership of the embryonic Commonwealth was that a state be a Dominion. Thus, the independence of Pakistan (1947), India (1947), and Sri Lanka (1948) saw the three countries join the Commonwealth as independent states that retained the king as head of state. On the other hand, Burma (1948) and Israel (1948) did not join the Commonwealth, as they chose to become republics. In 1949 the Commonwealth chose to regard Ireland as no longer being a member when Ireland repealed legislation under which the King had played a role in its diplomatic relations with other states, although the Irish government’s view was that Ireland had not been a member for some years.