The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) are fourteen dependent territories of the United Kingdom (UK) that lie outside the British Islands. These territories are remnants of the former British Empire, which remained under British sovereignty following decolonisation, albeit with varying constitutional statuses. – Hosted on the Government of the United Kingdom website. Britain is notably the only country to still have territories in every continent on earth, except the continent of Australia.
The permanently inhabited territories exercise varying degrees of internal self-governance, although the UK retains ultimate constitutional oversight, and authority over defence, foreign relations and internal security. Three territories, namely the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the British Indian Ocean Territory, have no permanent civilian population and are staffed primarily by scientific, administrative, or military personnel. The remainder host substantial civilian populations. All fourteen territories recognise the British monarch as head of state and oversight is primarily exercised by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself. The total land area of all the BOTs is .
Population Most of the territories retain permanent civilian populations, with the exceptions of the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (which host only officials and research station staff), and the British Indian Ocean Territory (used as a military base). Permanent residency for the approximately 7,000 civilians living in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia is limited to citizens of Cyprus.
Collectively, the territories encompass a population of about 250,000 people. The two largest territories by population, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, account for about half of the total BOT population. The Cayman Islands alone comprise 28% of the entire BOT population. At the other end of the scale, three territories have no civilian inhabitants – the Antarctic Territory (currently consisting of five research stations), the British Indian Ocean Territory (whose inhabitants, the Chagossians, were forcibly moved to Mauritius and the United Kingdom between 1968 and 1973), and South Georgia (which actually did have a full-time population of two between 1992 and 2006). The Pitcairn Islands, settled by the survivors of the mutiny on the Bounty, is the smallest settled territory, with 49 inhabitants (all of whom live on the titular island).
Geography Collectively, the territories encompass a land area of about . The vast majority of this land area constitutes the almost uninhabited British Antarctic Territory (the land area of all the territories excepting the Antarctic territory is only ). The smallest by land area is Gibraltar, which lies on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. The United Kingdom participates in the Antarctic Treaty System and, as part of a mutual agreement, the British Antarctic Territory is recognised by four of the six other sovereign nations making claims to Antarctic territory.
Present overseas territories
The 14 British Overseas Territories are:
Flag Arms Name Location Motto Area Population CapitalOfficial language(s)GDP(nominal)GDP percapita(nominal)Notes Akrotiri and Dhekelia Cyprus, the eastern Mediterranean Sea (Cypriots; estimate)8,000 non-permanent (UK military personnel and their families; estimate) Episkopi CantonmentEnglish Disputed sovereignty (UK claims full sovereignty, Cyprus claims partial sovereignty) Anguilla The Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, The North Atlantic Ocean "Unity, Strength and Endurance" (2025 estimate) The ValleyEnglish$20,307 Bermuda The North Atlantic Ocean between Cape Sable Island of Canada, Cape Hatteras of its nearest neighbour, the US, the Caribbean (all to the west), and the Azores (to the east). "Quo fata ferunt" (Latin; "Whither the Fates carry [us]") (2016 census)HamiltonEnglish$102,987The oldest territory, accidentally settled by the Virginia Company in 1609 and officially added to its Royal Charter in 1612. The House of Assembly of Bermuda held its first session in 1612. British Antarctic Territory Antarctica "Research and Discovery" 50 non-permanent in winter, over 400 in summer (research personnel) Rothera (main base)English Subject to the Antarctic Treaty System. British Indian Ocean Territory The central Indian Ocean "In tutela nostra Limuria" (Latin; "Limuria is in our charge") (disputed)3,000 non-permanent (UK and US military and staff personnel; estimate) Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia (integrated military base)English Includes seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago and the island of Diego Garcia. Claimed by Mauritius, with which an agreement to handover sovereignty was finalised in May 2025. This agreement is pending ratification. British Virgin Islands The Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, The North Atlantic Ocean "Vigilate" (Latin; "Be watchful") (2024 estimate) Road TownEnglish$48,511Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Jost Van Dyke Cayman Islands The Greater Antilles of the Caribbean "He hath founded it upon the seas" (2025 estimate) George TownEnglish$85,474Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman Falkland Islands The Patagonian Shelf of "Desire the right" (2021 census)1,350 non-permanent (UK military personnel; 2012 estimate) StanleyEnglish$70,800 A tight archipelago of East Falkland, West Falkland, and over 700 other islands. Claimed by Argentina as the Malvinas and in the Falklands War of 1982, Argentinian forces invaded and briefly occupied the islands. Gibraltar Iberian Peninsula, Continental Europe at the Straits of Gibraltar / Pillars of Hercules "Nulli expugnabilis hosti" (Latin; "No enemy shall expel us") (2022 census)1,250 non-permanent (UK military personnel; 2012 estimate) GibraltarEnglish$92,843Claimed by Spain. Montserrat The Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, The North Atlantic Ocean "A people of excellence, moulded by nature, nurtured by God" (2023 census) Plymouth (de jure, but abandoned due to Soufrière Hills volcanic eruption. De facto capital is Brades)English$12,181 Pitcairn Islands (2023 estimate)6 non-permanent (2014 estimate)"Pitcairn Residents" . puc.edu. Retrieved 7 September 2016. AdamstownEnglish, Pitkern$2,894 A small archipelago of the Isles of Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno (total; 2016 census) JamestownEnglish$55.7 million$12,230 Highly separated sea-mounts running from equatorial Ascension Island to the small archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, having a three main islands – with Gough and Inaccessible Islands – and three uninhabited minor Nightingale isles, these are SW of Cape Town. St Helena is about SE of Ascension. "Loyal and Unshakeable" (Saint Helena) (Saint Helena; June 2025 estimate) (Ascension; 2016 census)1,000 non-permanent (Ascension; UK military personnel; estimate) "Our faith is our strength" (Tristan da Cunha) (Tristan da Cunha; 2016 census)9 non-permanent (Tristan da Cunha; weather personnel) South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands , bordering the Southern Ocean at 60° S latitude and within the Antarctic Convergence, on the edge of the Patagonian Shelf about ESE of the Falkland Islands "Leo terram propriam protegat" (Latin; "Let the lion protect his own land") South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands . The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. 99 non-permanent (officials and research personnel) King Edward PointEnglish A loose archipelago of South Georgia with the Scotia Arc chain of smaller isles, known as the South Sandwich Islands. Originally used as a whaling station, but now for just Antarctic research. Claimed by Argentina, these islands were occupied by Argentinian forces during the Falklands War in 1982. Turks and Caicos Islands South-eastern of section of the Lucayan Archipelago — the other isles being the Bahamas — in North Atlantic Ocean"Beautiful by nature" (2025 estimate) Cockburn TownEnglish£28,589Includes Grand Turk IslandOverall 1,727,415 km2(18,105 km2 excl. BAT) 272,256 $16.55 billion
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History
Early colonies, in the sense of English subjects residing in lands hitherto outside the control of the English government, were generally known as plantations. The first, unofficial, colony was Newfoundland Colony, where English fishermen routinely set up seasonal camps in the 16th century. It is now a province of Canada known as Newfoundland and Labrador.
After failed attempts, including the Roanoke Colony, the permanent English colonisation of North America began officially in 1607 with the settlement of Jamestown, the first successful permanent colony in Virginia (a term that was then applied generally to North America). Its offshoot, Bermuda, was settled inadvertently after the wrecking of the Virginia Company's flagship there in 1609, with the company's charter extended to officially include the archipelago in 1612. St. George's town, founded in Bermuda in that year, remains the oldest continuously inhabited British settlement in the New World (with some historians stating that – its formation predating the 1619 conversion of James Fort into Jamestown – St. George's was actually the first successful town the English established in the New World). Bermuda and Bermudians have played important, sometimes pivotal, but generally underestimated or unacknowledged roles in the shaping of the English and British transatlantic empires. These include maritime commerce, settlement of the continent and of the West Indies, the projection of naval power via the colony's privateers, and its role after the independence of the thirteen colonies that became the United States of America as an Imperial fortress, among other areas.
The growth of the British Empire in the 19th century, to its territorial peak in the 1920s, saw Britain acquire nearly one quarter of the world's land mass, including territories with large indigenous populations in Asia and Africa. From the middle of the 19th century to the early 20th century, the larger settler colonies – in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – first became self-governing colonies and then achieved independence in all matters except foreign policy, defence and trade. Separate self-governing colonies federated to become Canada (in 1867), Australia (in 1901), South Africa (in 1910) and Rhodesia (in 1965). These and other large self-governing colonies had by the 1920s become known as dominions. The dominions achieved almost full independence with the Statute of Westminster (1931).
Through a process of decolonisation following the Second World War, most of the British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean chose independence. Some colonies became Commonwealth realms, retaining the monarch as their own head of state.Statute of Westminster 1931 (UK) CHAPTER 4 22 and 23 Geo 5 Most former colonies and protectorates became member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, a non-political, voluntary association of equal members, comprising a population of around 2.2 billion people.The Commonwealth – About Us ; Online September 2014