Carl XVI Gustaf (full name: Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus, born 30 April 1946) is the King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf on 15 September 1973.

He is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His father died on 26 January 1947 in an airplane crash in Denmark when Carl Gustaf was nine months old. Upon his father's death, he became second in line to the throne, after his grandfather, Gustaf VI Adolf. Following the death of Gustav V in 1950, Gustaf Adolf ascended the throne and thus Carl Gustaf became Sweden's new crown prince and heir-apparent to the throne at the age of 4.

A short while after he became King in 1973, the new 1974 Instrument of Government took effect, formally stripping him of any formal role in the legislative process, and several other duties normally accorded to a head of state, such as the formal appointment of the prime minister, signing off legislation, and being commander-in-chief of the nation's military. The new instrument explicitly limits the king to ceremonial functions and, among other things, to be regularly informed of affairs of state. As head of the Royal House of Bernadotte Carl Gustaf has also been able to make a number of government supported decisions about the titles and positions of its members.

The king's heir apparent, upon passage on 1 January 1980 of a new law establishing absolute primogeniture (the first such law passed in European history), is Crown Princess Victoria, the eldest child of the king and his wife, Queen Silvia.

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