The Group 1 elements other than hydrogen are called the alkali metals. The Group 1 elements are:

• Hydrogen
• Lithium
• Sodium
• Potassium
• Rubidium
• Caesium
• Francium

The Group 1 metals are all highly reactive silvery metals that are so reactive to air and moisture that they must be stored under an inert atmosphere or oil. They are all soft and can be cut easily with a knife.

Hydrogen is usually placed at the top of the Group but is not a Group 1 metal.

The electronic configuration of the elements all consist of a lone s-electron outside an inner core of electron corresponding to the previous inert gas.

In the standard form of the periodic table the s-block, p-block, and d-block elements are organised into 18 vertical columns called groups. These are labelled from 1 to 18 under current IUPAC numenclature.

Earlier labelling schemes (Trivial Group names)

For historical reasons some Groups have special names. Terms such as the "alkali metals" are in very common use whereas the term "pnictogens" is very much less common. Some of these special names are listed in the Table.