List of current monarchies

Absolute monarchy   Semi-constitutional monarchy   Constitutional monarchy   Commonwealth realms (constitutional monarchies in personal union)   Subnational monarchies (traditional)

This is a list of current monarchies. As of 2018, there are 43 sovereign states in the world with a monarch as Head of state. They fall roughly into the following categories:

• Commonwealth realms. Queen Elizabeth II is the monarch of sixteen Commonwealth realms (Antigua and Barbuda; the Commonwealth of Australia; the Commonwealth of the Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Canada; Grenada; Jamaica; New Zealand; the Independent State of Papua New Guinea; the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Solomon Islands; Tuvalu; and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). They have evolved out of the British Empire into fully independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations that retain the Queen as head of state, unlike other Commonwealth countries that are either dependencies, republics or have a different royal house. All sixteen realms are constitutional monarchies and full democracies where the Queen has limited powers or a largely ceremonial role. The Queen is head of the established Protestant Christian Church of England in the United Kingdom, while the other 15 realms do not have an established church.
• Other European constitutional monarchies.
  • The Principality of Andorra; the Kingdom of Belgium; the Kingdom of Denmark; the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the Kingdom of Norway; the Kingdom of Spain; and the Kingdom of Sweden are fully democratic states in which the monarch has a limited or largely ceremonial role.
  • There is generally a Christian religion established as the official church in each of these countries. This is the Lutheran form of Protestantism in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; Belgium and Andorra are Roman Catholic countries. Spain and the Netherlands have no official state religion. Luxembourg, which is very predominantly Roman Catholic, has five so-called officially recognized cults of national importance (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Greek Orthodoxy, Judaism, and Islam), a status which gives to those religions some privileges like the payment of a state salary to their priests.
  • Andorra is unique among all existing monarchies, as it is, by definition, a diarchy, with the Co-Princeship being shared by the President of France and the Bishop of Urgell. This situation, based on historic precedence, has created a peculiar situation among monarchies, as a) both Co-Princes are not of Andorran descent, b) one is elected by common citizens of a foreign country (France), but not by Andorrans as they cannot vote in the French Presidential Elections, c) the other, the bishop of Urgel, is appointed by a foreign head of state, the Pope.
• European constitutional/absolute monarchies. Liechtenstein and Monaco are constitutional monarchies in which the Prince retains many powers of an absolute monarch. For example, the 2003 Constitution referendum which gives the Prince of Liechtenstein the power to veto any law that the Landtag (parliament) proposes and the Landtag can veto any law that the Prince tries to pass. The Prince can hire or dismiss any elective member or government employee from his or her post. However, what makes him not an absolute monarch is that the people can call for a referendum to end the monarchy's reign. The Prince of Monaco has simpler powers but cannot hire or dismiss any elective member or government employee from his or her post, but he can elect the minister of state, government council and judges. Both Albert II and Hans-Adam II have quite a bit of political power, but they also own huge tracts of land and are shareholders in many companies.
• Muslim monarchies. These Muslim monarchs of the Kingdom of Bahrain; the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace; the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; the State of Kuwait; the Kingdom of Morocco; the Sultanate of Oman; the State of Qatar; the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and the United Arab Emirates generally retain far more powers than their European or Commonwealth counterparts. The same goes for Malaysia where Islam is the official religion of the federation. ^[1] Absolute monarchs remain in the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace; the Sultanate of Oman; the State of Qatar; and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates are classified as mixed, meaning there are representative bodies of some kind, but the monarch retains most of his powers. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Malaysia, and the Kingdom of Morocco are constitutional monarchies, but their monarchs still retain more substantial powers than European equivalents.
• East Asian constitutional monarchies. The Kingdom of Bhutan; the Kingdom of Cambodia; Empire of Japan; and the Kingdom of Thailand have constitutional monarchies where the monarch has a limited or ceremonial role. The Kingdom of Bhutan, Japan, and the Kingdom of Thailand are countries that were never colonized by European powers, but Japan and the Kingdom of Thailand have changed from traditional absolute monarchies into constitutional ones during the twentieth century, while the Kingdom of Bhutan changed in 2008. The Kingdom of Cambodia had its own monarchy after independence from the French Colonial Empire, which was deposed after the Khmer Rouge came into power. The monarchy was subsequently restored in the peace agreement of 1993.
• Other monarchies. Five monarchies do not fit into one of the above groups by virtue of geography or class of monarchy: the Kingdom of Tonga in Polynesia; Kingdom of eSwatini (Swaziland) and the Kingdom of Lesotho in Africa; and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Vatican City State in Europe. Of these, the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Kingdom of Tonga are constitutional monarchies, while the Kingdom of eSwatini and the Vatican City State are absolute monarchies. The Kingdom of eSwatini is also unique among these monarchies, often being considered a diarchy. The King, or Ngwenyama, rules alongside his mother, the Ndlovukati, as dual heads of state originally designed to be checks on political power. The Ngwenyama, however, is considered the administrative head of state, while the Ndlovukati is considered the spiritual and national head of state, a position which more or less has become symbolic in recent years. The Pope is the absolute monarch of the Vatican City State (different entity from the Holy See) by virtue of his position as head of the Roman Catholic Church and Bishop of Rome; he is an elected rather than hereditary ruler and has not to be a citizen of the territory prior to his election by the cardinals.

Lines of succession

Some of the extant sovereign monarchies have lines of succession that go back to the medieval period or antiquity:

• Japan, considered a constitutional monarchy under the Imperial House of Japan, has a claim to being the world's oldest extant continuous hereditary monarchy,^[2] with a traditional origin in 660 BC, and reliable historiographical evidence from at least the 6th century.
• The kings of Cambodia claim descent from Queen Soma (1st century), although the historiographical record is interrupted in the "Dark ages of Cambodia" (15th/16th centuries).
• The monarchs of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth realms inherit the throne by virtue of the line of descent from the House of Stuart (Union of the Crowns 1603), combining the lines of succession of the kingdoms of England and Scotland going back to the 9th century. The succession to the English throne can be argued to originate with the House of Wessex, established in the 6th century; that to the Scottish throne with descent from Pictish kings which likewise enter the historical record around the 6th century.
• The monarchs of the kingdom of Norway by virtue of descent from Harald I Fairhair, who united the realm in 872. Harald as a member of the House of Yngling is given a partly legendary line of succession from earlier petty kings in historiographical tradition.
• The kings of Spain via descent from the Catholic Monarchs (via the House of Habsburg), ultimately combining the lines of succession of Castile and León and Aragon, realms established in the 10th to 11th centuries in the course of the Reconquista, via the Kingdom of Asturias claiming descent from the Visigothic Kingdom (which, originally ruled by the Thervingi kings, had become elective in the 6th century).

Current monarchies

Monarchy	Official local name	Title of Head of State	Title of Head of Government	Type of Monarchy	Succession	Current constitution
Principality of Andorra [3]	In Catalan; Principat d'Andorra	Co-Princes	Prime Minister	Constitutional	Ex officio	1993
Antigua and Barbuda[4]	In English; Antigua and Barbuda	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1981
Commonwealth of Australia[5]	In English; Commonwealth of Australia	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1901
Commonwealth of the Bahamas[6]	In English; Commonwealth of the Bahamas	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1973
Barbados[7]	In English; Barbados	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1966
Kingdom of Bahrain[8]	In Arabic; Mamlakat al- Baḥrayn	King	Prime Minister	Mixed	Hereditary	2002
Kingdom of Belgium[9]	In Dutch; Koninkrijk België In French; Royaume de Belgique In German; Königreich Belgien	King 1	Prime Minister	Constitutional	Hereditary 1	1831
Belize[10]	In English; Belize	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1981
Kingdom of Bhutan[11]	In Dzongkha; Druk Yul	King	Prime Minister		Hereditary	2007
Brunei Darussalam[12]	In Malay; Negara Brunei Darussalam	Sultan		Absolute	Hereditary	1959
Kingdom of Cambodia[13]	In Khmer; Preăh Réachéanachâk Kâmpŭchéa	King	Prime Minister	Constitutional	Hereditary and elective	1993
Canada[14]	In English and French; Canada	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1867
Kingdom of Denmark[15]	In Danish; Kongeriget Danmark	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1849
Grenada[16]	In English; Grenada	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1974
Jamaica[17]	In English; Jamaica	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1962
Japan[18]	In Japanese; Nippon-koku/Nihon-koku	Emperor	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1947
State of Kuwait[19]	In Arabic; Dawlat al-Kuwait	Emir	Prime Minister		Hereditary and elective	1962
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan[20]	In Arabic; al-Mamlakah al-Urdunīyah al-Hāshimīyah	King	Prime Minister		Hereditary and elective	1952
Kingdom of Lesotho[21]	In Sotho; Muso oa Lesotho In English; Kingdom of Lesotho	King	Prime Minister		Hereditary and elective	1993
Principality of Liechtenstein[22]	In German; Fürstentum Liechtenstein	Sovereign Prince	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1862
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg[23]	In French; Grand-Duché de Luxembourg In German; Großherzogtum Luxemburg In Luxembourgish; Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg	Grand Duke	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1868
Malaysia[24]	In Malay; Malaysia	Yang di-Pertuan Agong	Prime Minister		Elective	1957
Sovereign Military Order of Malta	In Italian; Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta In Latin; Supremus Ordo Militaris Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani Rhodius et Melitensis	Prince and Grand Master	Grand Chancellor		Elective	1834
Principality of Monaco[25]	In French; Principauté de Monaco In Monégasque; Principatu de Múnegu	Sovereign Prince	Minister of State		Hereditary	1911
Kingdom of Morocco[26]	In Arabic; al-Mamlaka al-Maghribiyya In Berber; Tageldit n Lmaɣrib	King	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1631
Kingdom of the Netherlands[27]	In Dutch; Koninkrijk der Nederlanden	King	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1815
New Zealand [28]	In English; New Zealand In Maori; Aotearoa	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1907
Kingdom of Norway[29]	In Bokmål; Kongeriket Norge In Nynorsk; Kongeriket Noreg	King	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1814
Sultanate of Oman[30]	In Arabic; Salṭanat ‘Umān	Sultan		Absolute	Hereditary	1996
Independent State of Papua New Guinea[31]	In English; Independent State of Papua New Guinea In Tok Pisin; Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini In Hiri Motu Papua Niu Gini	Queen	Prime Minister	Constitutional	Hereditary	1975
Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis[32]	In English; Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1983
Saint Lucia[33]	In English; Saint Lucia	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1979
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines[34]	In English; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1979
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia[35]	In Arabic; Al-Mamlakah al-Arabiyah as-Sa'ūdiyah	King		Absolute	Hereditary and elective	19922
Solomon Islands[36]	In English; Solomon Islands	Queen	Prime Minister	Constitutional	Hereditary	1978
Kingdom of Spain[37]	In Spanish; Reino de España	King	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1978
Kingdom of Eswatini[38]	In Swazi; Umbuso weSwatini In English; Kingdom of Eswatini	King	Prime Minister	Absolute	Hereditary and elective	1968
Kingdom of Sweden[39]	In Swedish; Konungariket Sverige	King	Prime Minister	Constitutional	Hereditary	1974
State of Qatar[40]	In Arabic; Dawlat Qaṭar	Emir	Prime Minister	Mixed	Hereditary	2004
Kingdom of Thailand[41]	In Thai; Ratcha Anachak Thai	King	Prime Minister	Constitutional	Hereditary	2017
Kingdom of Tonga[42]	In Tonga; Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga In English; Kingdom of Tonga	King	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1970
Tuvalu[43]	In English; Tuvalu	Queen	Prime Minister		Hereditary	1978
United Arab Emirates[44]	In Arabic; Dawlat al-ʾImārāt al-ʿArabiyyah al-Muttaḥidah	President	Prime Minister	Absolute	Hereditary and elective	1971
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[45]	In English; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	Queen	Prime Minister	Constitutional	Hereditary	1701
Vatican City State[46]	In Latin; Status Civitatis Vaticanae In Italian; Stato della Città del Vaticano	Pope	President of the Pontifical Commission	Absolute	Elective	1920

See also

• List of oldest institutions in continuous operation

Useful links