Athletics is one of several sports contested at the quadrennialCommonwealth Games competition. It has been aCommonwealth Games sport since the inaugural edition of the event's precursor, the1930 British Empire Games. It is a core sport and must be included in the sporting programme of each edition of the Games.

Games	Year	Host city	Host country	Best nation
I	1930	Hamilton, Ontario	Canada	England
II	1934	London	England	England
III	1938	Sydney	Australia	Canada
IV	1950	Auckland	New Zealand	Australia
V	1954	Vancouver, British Columbia	Canada	England
VI	1958	Cardiff	Wales	Australia
VII	1962	Perth,Western Australia	Australia	Australia
VIII	1966	Kingston	Jamaica	Australia
IX	1970	Edinburgh	Scotland	Australia
X	1974	Christchurch	New Zealand	England
XI	1978	Edmonton, Alberta	Canada	England
XII	1982	Brisbane,Queensland	Australia	England
XIII	1986	Edinburgh	Scotland	England
XIV	1990	Auckland	New Zealand	England
XV	1994	Victoria, British Columbia	Canada	England
XVI	1998	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	Australia
XVII	2002	Manchester	England	England
XVIII	2006	Melbourne	Australia	Australia
XIX	2010	Delhi	India	Kenya
XX	2014	Glasgow	Scotland	Kenya
XXI	2018	Gold Coast, Queensland	Australia	Australia
XXII	2022	Birmingham	England	Australia
XXIII	2026	Glasgow	Scotland

No new events have been added to the men's athletics programme since the 1998 addition of the 20 km and 50 km racewalks. The roster of events has not changed since then, with the exception of the omission of the 50 km racewalk from 2010 and the 20 km racewalk in 2014. A total of 35 different events have been held in the men's competition, 23 of which were contested at the2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Many of the discontinued events were similar to modern events but at different lengths as they were contested over distances measured inImperial units. Events with distances measured inmetric units were first contested in 1970.

A total of 34 different events have been held in the women's competition, 23 of which were contested at the2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. The women's program has been identical to the men's program since the2006 Commonwealth Games (with the exception of the discontinued men's 50 km walk) when the women's 3000m steeplechase was added to the program. The 20 km racewalk was omitted from the program in 2014.

From the2002 Commonwealth Games a number of events have been included in the program to include elite athletes with disabilities. The inclusion of events in this category has been inconsistent over the four Games where they have been included.

Updated after the 2022 Commonwealth Games

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia	206	172	141	519
2	England	202	215	195	612
3	Canada	86	100	137	323
4	Kenya	78	67	58	203
5	Jamaica	73	43	48	164
6	South Africa	45	41	36	122
7	New Zealand	39	50	53	142
8	Nigeria	27	29	24	80
9	Scotland	20	25	37	82
10	Wales	18	18	22	58
11	Bahamas	11	15	10	36
12	Uganda	11	6	8	25
13	Trinidad and Tobago	8	14	12	34
14	Northern Ireland	7	12	2	21
15	India	6	14	16	36
16	Ghana	5	8	12	25
17	Tanzania	5	5	6	16
18	Botswana	5	4	2	11
19	Pakistan	3	3	6	12
20	Guyana	3	3	1	7
21	Grenada	3	2	2	7
22	Namibia	3	1	9	13
23	Mozambique	2	2	1	5
24	Barbados	2	1	5	8
25	Zambia	2	0	1	3
26	British Virgin Islands	2	0	0	2
27	Zimbabwe	1	4	8	13
28	Cyprus	1	4	3	8
29	Fiji	1	2	2	5
	Sri Lanka	1	2	2	5
31	Bermuda	1	1	3	5
	Saint Lucia	1	1	3	5
33	Malaysia	1	1	2	4
34	Cayman Islands	1	0	1	2
35	Lesotho	1	0	0	1
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	1	0	0	1
	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1	0	0	1
38	Cameroon	0	4	3	7
39	Dominica	0	2	1	3
40	Mauritius	0	1	1	2
41	Guernsey	0	0	1	1
	Samoa	0	0	1	1
	Seychelles	0	0	1	1
	Swaziland	0	0	1	1
	The Gambia	0	0	1	1
	Vanuatu	0	0	1	1
Totals (46 entries)		883	872	879	2,634

• List of Commonwealth Games records in athletics
• List of Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics (men)
• List of Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics (women)

• Commonwealth Games sport index

• Athletics at the Commonwealth Games
• Athletics at multi-sport events
• Sports at the Commonwealth Games

• Articles with short description
• Short description with empty Wikidata description
• Use British English from June 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Use dmy dates from June 2025