Permanent residency for the approximately 7,000 civilians living in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia is limited to citizens of the Republic of Cyprus.

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, and the projection of naval power via the colony's privateers, among other areas.

Through a process of decolonisation following the Second World War, most of the British colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean chose independence.

[50] After the independence of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in Africa in 1980 and British Honduras (now Belize) in Central America in 1981, the last major colony that remained was Hong Kong, with a population of over 5 million.

[51] With 1997 approaching, the United Kingdom and China negotiated the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which led to the whole of Hong Kong becoming a special administrative region of China in 1997, subject to various conditions intended to guarantee the preservation of Hong Kong's capitalist economy and its way of life under British rule for at least 50 years after the handover.

Gibraltar was not a member of the EU in its own right; it received representation in the European Parliament through its being part of the South West England constituency.

Overseas citizens held concurrent European Union citizenship, giving them rights of free movement across all EU member states.

On 15 May 2023, the sixteen heraldic shields of the British Overseas Territories and the three coat of arms of the Crown Dependencies were "immortalised" in two new stained-glass windows, unveiled in the Speaker's House at the New Palace of Westminster.

Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle said "The two windows represent part of our United Kingdom family".

Exceptionally, in the overseas territories of Saint Helena, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha and the Pitcairn Islands, an administrator is appointed to be the governor's representative.

[66] The 2004 Pitcairn Islands sexual assault trial is an example of how the United Kingdom may choose to provide the legal framework for particular cases where the territory cannot do so alone.

Territories with military bases or responsibilities may also have "Overseas Service Police", members of the British or Commonwealth Armed Forces.

[70] Gibraltar was captured from Spain in 1704 by a force led by Admiral Sir George Rooke representing the Grand Alliance on behalf of the Archduke Charles, pretender to the Spanish throne.

The long-running dispute was referred in 2017 to the International Court of Justice, which issued an advisory opinion on 25 February 2019 which supported the position of the government of Mauritius.

[79] Britain provides financial assistance to the overseas territories via the FCDO (previously the Department for International Development).

As of 2019, only Montserrat, Saint Helena, Pitcairn and Tristan da Cunha receive budgetary aid (i.e. financial contribution to recurrent funding).

[83][84] The Chief Minister has argued that all British citizens in overseas territories should have the right to vote in UK parliamentary elections.

The Chief Minister acknowledged the difficulty of finding a system to accommodate Westminster representation and OT's self-governance - but said that the "Pandora's Box" of devolution had opened a window to how this could be addressed.

Although the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are also under the sovereignty of the British monarch, they are in a different constitutional relationship with the United Kingdom.

Labour had decried discrimination against the people of the British Dependent Territories (other than those of Gibraltar and the Falklands), which was understood universally as intended to raise a colour bar and had done so given that most white colonials were not affected by it and had made restoration of a single citizenship part of its election manifesto.

[89] Five years after the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the British government amended the 1981 Act to give British citizenship without restrictions to all BDTCs (the status was also renamed BOTC at the same time) except for those solely connected with Akrotiri and Dhekelia (whose residents already held Cypriot citizenship).

Many of the overseas territories are used as military bases by the United Kingdom- and its allies: As overseas territories came under the administration of the British Empire, a number of towns and villages began to request formal recognition to validate their importance, and would be accorded a status if deemed to be deserving such as a borough or as a more prestigious city by the monarch.

However, mainly from the 20th century onwards, increasing levels of states becoming fully independent caused the numbers of remaining cities to reduce substantially.

In 2021, submissions for city status were invited to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, with Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories being allowed to take part for the first time.

[98] Stanley was later granted the honour, and alongside Hamilton, Bermuda, and Jamestown, St Helena, making a present total of four cities.

[108] Shara Proctor from Anguilla, Delano Williams from the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jenaya Wade-Fray from Bermuda[109] and Georgina Cassar from Gibraltar strove to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics.

Proctor, Wade-Fray and Cassar qualified for Team GB, with Williams missing the cut, however wishing to represent the UK in 2016.

[114][115] Gibraltar's Gorham's Cave Complex is also found on the UK's tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site list.

[116] The three regions of biodiversity hotspots situated in the British Overseas Territories are the Caribbean Islands, the Mediterranean Basin and the Oceania ecozone in the Pacific.