List
| Lists of capitals |
|---|
| Of countries |
| Of country subdivisions |
This is a list of the largest and second largest cities by population in each country. If a territory or region of a certain country is listed, the name of the country is specified in parentheses immediately after the name of the territory.
This is a list of sovereign states whose capital is not their largest city.
| Country | Capital | Population | Largest city | Population | Ratio | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Canberra | 390,706 | Sydney | 4,921,000 | 12.6 | Although Canberra has been Australia's capital city since around 1913, the national parliament met in Melbourne, Victoria until 1927. Melbourne is Australia's second most populous city (4,529,500) |
 | Belmopan | 16,400 | Belize City | 70,000 | 4.27 | Belize City was the capital until 1970. |
 | Porto-Novo | 223,500 | Cotonou | 761,100 | 3.4 | Cotonou is the de facto capital with seat of government. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area |
 | Sucre | 259,388 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra [249] | 1,453,549 | 7.1 | La Paz is the de facto capital with seat of government, is the third largest city of Bolivia and is the center of the second metropolitan area. |
 | Brasília | 2,557,158 | São Paulo | 11,150,249 | 4.55 | Brasília is a planned city, inaugurated in 1960, and serving as the Brazilian capital since then. Rio de Janeiro, the former capital, was the capital of Brazil from 1763 until 1960 (and largest city in Brazil from 1654 to 1954). São Paulo has never been the capital, but became the most populous city in Brazil in 1954, a position it has held since then. As of the 2010 Brazilian census, Brasília is the fifth most populous city in Brazil, and the seventh largest metropolitan area. |
 | Gitega | 22,989 | Bujumbura | 497,166 | 21.6 | Bujumbura was the capital until 2018. |
 | Yaoundé | 1,430,000 | Douala | 2,000,000 + | 1.4 | Yaoundé is the second largest city of Cameroon. |
 | Ottawa | 934,243 | Toronto | 2,731,571 | 3.08 | Toronto was the capital of the united Province of Canada from 1849 to 1852 and 1856–1858. Montreal was the largest city in Canada up until the 1970s when it was surpassed by Toronto. |
 | Beijing | 22,000,000 | Shanghai | 34,000,000 | 1.55 | Beijing is the second largest city of China by a relatively small margin. Shanghai is the largest city proper in China and the world. |
 | Yamoussoukro | 200,659 | Abidjan | 4,348,000 | 21.7 | Abidjan was the capital until 1983. |
 | Malabo | 187,302 | Bata | 250,770 | 1.34 | The capital Malabo is the second largest city of Equatorial Guinea and has the specificity of being located on an island even though the country possesses mainland. It is about to be replaced by the planned city of Oyala, currently under construction. |
 | New Delhi | 249,998 | Mumbai | 12,442,373 | 49.77 | New Delhi is part of the Delhi metropolitan area which has 21,753,486 inhabitants (the Mumbai metropolitan region has 20,748,395). |
 | Nur-Sultan | 743,014 | Almaty | 1,450,095 | 1.95 | Almaty was the capital from 1927 to 1997. Nur-Sultan was named Astana until March 2019. |
 | Vaduz | 5,109 | Schaan | 5,806 | 1.14 | Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area |
 | Valletta | 6,000 | Birkirkara | 21,000 | 3.5 | Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area |
 | Palikir | 5,000 | Weno | 13,000 | 2.6 | Palikir is the second largest city of Micronesia. |
 | Rabat | 627,000 | Casablanca | 4,150,000 | 6.62 | Rabat is the seventh largest city of Morocco. |
 | Naypyidaw | 925,000 | Yangon | 4,346,000 | 4.7 | Yangon was the capital until 2006. Naypyidaw is de facto mainly rural county rather than contiguous urban area |
 | Wellington | 418,500 | Auckland | 1,570,100 | 3.75 | Auckland was the capital 1841–1865, and Russell in 1840–41. |
 | Abuja | 778,567 | Lagos | 7,937,932 | 10.2 | Lagos was the capital until 1991. |
 | Islamabad | 1,740,000 | Karachi | 24,300,000 | 13.97 | Karachi was the capital from 1947 to 1958. Islamabad is part of much larger Rawalpindi-Islamabad metropolitan area |
 | Ngerulmud | 271 | Koror | 11,200 | 41.32 | Koror was the capital until 2006. |
 | Manila | 1,780,148 | Quezon City | 2,936,116 | 1.67 | Quezon City was inaugurated in 1939 and planned to replace Manila as capital. Although it actually held the title from 1948 until 1976, many of the government offices and the presidential palace remained in Manila. Both cities are in the Metropolitan Manila region with Quezon City bordering Manila on the northeast. Manila was the largest city in the Philippines (by far) from the Spanish colonial times up to 1990. Quezon City and Manila became the most and second most populous cities in the Philippines since then. |
 | San Marino | 4,211 | Serravalle | 10,601 | 2.52 | |
 | Pretoria | 2,345,908 | Johannesburg | 3,888,180 | 1.66 | Cape Town (pop. 3.5 mln) and Bloemfontein (pop. 370,000) serve as legislative and judicial capitals, respectively. |
 | Khartoum | 2,207,794 [ citation needed ] | Omdurman | 2,395,159 | 1.08 | Wikipedia articles on Khartoum and Omdurman contradict this. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area. |
 | Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte | 115,826 | Colombo | 642,163 | 5.54 | Colombo was the capital until 1982. |
 | Bern | 138,041 | Zürich | 397,698 | 2.88 | Political power in Switzerland is very decentralized. Technically it has no capital city (just as it has no head of state or prime minister). Bern was designated as "federal city" with the seat of the two parliament chambers in 1848, when for the first time the independent Swiss states established standing federal authorities. Today, important federal authorities are also located in Lausanne (most notably, the Federal Supreme Court), Zürich, Lucerne, Bellinzona and St. Gallen. Until 1798, the council of the Swiss states met in various places: most frequently in Lucerne, Zürich, Baden and Frauenfeld. Between 1798 and 1803 there were three successive cities of government: Aarau, Luzern and Bern. Between 1815 and 1848 the meeting place of the council changed every two years between Zürich, Bern and Lucerne. |
 | Dodoma | 324,347 | Dar es Salaam | 2,497,940 | 7.70 | Dar es Salaam was the capital until 1974. |
 | Port of Spain | 49,000 | Chaguanas | 67,400 | 1.37 | Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area |
 | Ankara | 5,150,072 | Istanbul | 14,377,018 | 3.4 | Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 to 1922. |
 | Abu Dhabi | 896,751 | Dubai | 2,262,000 | 2.52 | Abu Dhabi is the second largest city of United Arab Emirates. |
 | Washington, D.C. | 672,228 | New York City | 8,550,405 | 12.72 | New York was the capital 1785–1790 and the largest city in 1790 (narrowly edging out the next capital, Philadelphia, which served as capital from 1790 to 1800). Philadelphia was the nation's second-largest city when it was the capital. The Washington metropolitan area is the sixth largest metropolitan area in the country and the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area is the nation's fourth largest combined statistical area. |
 | Hanoi | 6,500,000 | Ho Chi Minh City | 7,123,340 | 1.1 | Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, was the capital of South Vietnam prior to reunification. |
| Country | Capital | Population | Largest city | Population | Ratio | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Taipei | 2,650,968 | New Taipei | 3,916,451 | 1.48 | Both cities are in Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area with Taipei surrounded entirely by New Taipei, which was Taipei's suburbs before its comprehensive development. Taipei became the provisional seat of government of the Republic of China from 7 December 1949 although Nanjing was designated as the capital. |
Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers 36,125 square kilometres (13,948 sq mi) with an estimated population of 1,874,303. It borders Senegal to the north and Guinea to the south-east.
Mumbai is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. According to United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai was the second most populous city in India after Delhi and the seventh most populous city in the world with a population of 19.98 million. As per Indian government population census of 2011, Mumbai was the most populous city in India with an estimated city proper population of 12.5 million living under Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. Mumbai is the centre of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the sixth most populous metropolitan area in the world with a population of over 23.64 million. Mumbai lies on the Konkan coast on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2008, Mumbai was named an alpha world city. It is also the wealthiest city in India, and has the highest number of millionaires and billionaires among all cities in India. Mumbai is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Elephanta Caves, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and the city's distinctive ensemble of Victorian and Art Deco buildings.
Kinshasa, formerly Léopoldville, is the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is situated alongside the Congo River.
Conakry is the capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population as of the 2014 Guinea census was 1,660,973.
Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll has a land area of 9.7 square kilometres (3.7 sq mi) and encloses a lagoon of 295 square kilometres (114 sq mi). As with other atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro consists of narrow land masses.
Pierre is the capital of the U.S. state of South Dakota and the seat of Hughes County.
Midwest City is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 54,371, making it the eighth largest city in the state.
The Provinces of the Philippines are the primary political and administrative divisions of the Philippines. There are 81 provinces at present, further subdivided into component cities and municipalities. The National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are independent of any provincial government. Each province is governed by an elected legislature called the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and by an elected governor.
Transnistria or Transdniestria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, is a breakaway state in the narrow strip of land between the river Dniester and the Ukrainian border that is internationally recognized as part of Moldova. Its capital is Tiraspol. Transnistria has been recognised only by three other mostly non-recognised states: Abkhazia, Artsakh, and South Ossetia.
This is a timeline of country and capital changes around the world. It includes dates of declarations of independence, changes in country name, changes of capital city or name, and significant changes in territory such as the annexation, cession, or secession of land.
Abu Dhabi is the capital and the second-most populous city of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, which is the largest of the UAE's seven emirates. The city of Abu Dhabi is located on an island in the Persian Gulf, off the Central West Coast. Most of the city and the Emirate reside on the mainland connected to the rest of the country. As of 2020, Abu Dhabi's urban area had an estimated population of 1.48 million, out of 2.9 million in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, as of 2016.
Ouarzazate Province is a province in the administrative region of Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco. Its population in 2004 was 499,980.
Zagora is a province in the Moroccan region of Drâa-Tafilalet. Its population in 2004 was 283,368.
The Central African Republic conflict is an ongoing civil war in the Central African Republic (CAR) involving the government, rebels from the Séléka coalition, and anti-balaka militias.
