List of countries whose capital is not their largest city

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The list of countries whose capital is not their largest city refers to the list of sovereign states whose capital is not their most populated city. [lower-alpha 1]

Contents

List

CountryCapitalPopulationLargest cityPopulationRatioNotes
Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia Canberra 426,704 Sydney 5,312,16312.6A planned city, Canberra has been Australia's capital city since its foundation in 1913. However, the national parliament was based in Melbourne, Victoria until 1927.
Flag of Belize.svg  Belize Belmopan 20,621 Belize City 61,7623.07Belize City was the capital until 1970.
Flag of Benin.svg  Benin Porto-Novo 264,320 Cotonou 761,1003.4Cotonou is the de facto capital with seat of government. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
Flag of Bolivia.svg  Bolivia Sucre 259,388 Santa Cruz de la Sierra [1] 1,453,5497.1 La Paz is the de facto capital with the seat of government; it is in Bolivia's second most populous metropolitan area.
Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil Brasília 3,500,000 São Paulo 12,252,0234.25Brasília is a planned city and has been the capital city since its inauguration in 1960. Rio de Janeiro was the capital from 1763 until 1960. Brasília is the third most populous city in Brazil and the seventh largest metropolitan area.
Flag of Burundi.svg  Burundi Gitega 41,944 Bujumbura 1,092,85926.06Bujumbura was the capital until 2019.
Flag of Cameroon.svg  Cameroon Yaoundé 1,430,000 Douala 2,000,000 +1.4Yaoundé is the second largest city in Cameroon.
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada Ottawa 1,017,449 Toronto 2,794,3563.08Toronto was the capital of the Province of Canada from 1849 to 1852 and 1856 to 1858. For some years before, Kingston was the de facto capital, but when it came time to form the United Province of Canada in 1841 an official capital needed to be designated. There was much controversy until Queen Victoria made her ruling (supported by a vote with a majority of 3) that it should be Ottawa. [2] [ clarification needed ]
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China Beijing 22,000,000 Shanghai 30,484,3001.39With a population of more than 19 million, Beijing is the second largest city in China, after Shanghai.
Flag of Ecuador.svg  Ecuador Quito 1,763,275 Guayaquil 2,650,2881.5 
Flag of Equatorial Guinea.svg  Equatorial Guinea Malabo 187,302 Bata 250,7701.34The capital Malabo is the second largest city in Equatorial Guinea. It is to be replaced by the planned city of Oyala, currently under construction.
Flag of The Gambia.svg  Gambia Banjul 31,301 Serrekunda 337,0002.18 
Flag of India.svg  India New Delhi 249,998 Mumbai 12,442,37349.77In 1912, the capital was moved from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to New Delhi. The neighbouring city of Delhi had previously served as the capital of the Mughal Empire.
Flag of Indonesia.svg  Indonesia Nusantara 0 Jakarta 11,350,328-Nusantara is scheduled to become the new capital of Indonesia.
Flag of Israel.svg  Israel Jerusalem (limited recognition)363,095 (excluding East Jerusalem) Tel Aviv 460,6131.2Jerusalem has only limited recognition as the capital of Israel. It would be Israel's largest city if East Jerusalem was included (increasing the population to 936,425). However, Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. Without East Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the internationally recognized capital, is Israel's largest city.
Flag of Cote d'Ivoire.svg  Ivory Coast Yamoussoukro 200,659 Abidjan 4,348,00021.7Abidjan was the capital until 1983.
Flag of Kazakhstan.svg  Kazakhstan Astana 743,014 Almaty 1,450,0951.95Almaty was the capital from 1927 to 1997. Astana was named Nur-Sultan from 2019 until 2022.
Flag of Liechtenstein.svg  Liechtenstein Vaduz 5,109 Schaan 6,0391.14 Vaduz is the second largest city in Liechtenstein. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area.
Flag of the Federated States of Micronesia.svg  Federated States of Micronesia Palikir 5,000 Weno 13,0001.4Palikir is the second largest city of Micronesia.
Flag of Malta.svg  Malta Valletta 5,827 St. Paul's Bay 29,0976.62Valletta is part of the Central Region, a conurbation with a population of 111,994.
Flag of Morocco.svg  Morocco Rabat 627,000 Casablanca 4,150,0006.62Rabat is the seventh largest city in Morocco.
Flag of Myanmar.svg  Myanmar Naypyidaw 925,000 Yangon 4,346,0004.7Yangon was the capital until 2006. Naypyidaw resembles a ghost city as it does not have contiguous urban areas.
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand Wellington 215,200 Auckland 1,478,8006.87Auckland was the capital from 1841 to 1865.
Flag of Nigeria.svg  Nigeria Abuja 778,567 Lagos 7,937,93210.2Lagos was the capital until 1991.
Flag of Pakistan.svg  Pakistan [3] [4] [5] Islamabad 1,014,825 Karachi 14,910,35214.69Karachi was the capital from 1947 to 1958.
Flag of Palau.svg  Palau Ngerulmud 0 Koror 11,200-Koror was the capital until 2006.
Flag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines Manila 1,780,148 Quezon City 2,936,1161.67Quezon City, a northeastern suburb of Manila, was planned as the post-colonial capital of the Philippines and officially declared the capital after independence from 1948. In 1976, both cities were made part of the Metropolitan Manila region. It had overtaken Manila as the largest city proper of the Philippines by the 1990 census.
Flag of San Marino.svg  San Marino San Marino 4,211 Serravalle 10,6012.52 
Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa Pretoria 2,345,908 Johannesburg 5,635,0001.66 Cape Town (pop. 4.8 million) and Bloemfontein (metro pop. 747,431) serve as legislative and judicial capitals respectively.
Flag of Sri Lanka.svg  Sri Lanka Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte 115,826 Colombo 642,1635.54Colombo was the official administrative capital until 1982, when it became the commercial capital.
Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland Bern 138,041 Zürich 397,6982.88Switzerland does not have a de jure capital, but Bern was designated "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. Important federal authorities are also located in Lausanne (most notably: the Federal Supreme Court), Zürich, Lucerne, Bellinzona and St. Gallen.
Flag of the Republic of China.svg  Taiwan Taipei 2,668,572 New Taipei 4,004,3671.5 [6]
Flag of Tanzania.svg  Tanzania Dodoma 324,347 Dar es Salaam 2,497,9407.70Dar es Salaam was the capital until 1974.
Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago Port of Spain 49,000 Chaguanas 67,4001.37Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey Ankara 5,150,072 Istanbul 14,377,0183.4Istanbul (as Constantinople) was the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 to 1922.
Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg  United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi 896,751 Dubai 2,262,0002.52Abu Dhabi is the second largest city in the United Arab Emirates.
Flag of the United States.svg United States Washington, D.C. 705,749 New York City 8,398,74812.72New 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. Washington is the 20th-largest city in the United States, but the Washington metropolitan area is the sixth-largest (estimated 6,216,589 in 2017).
Flag of Vietnam.svg  Vietnam Hanoi 8,053,663 Ho Chi Minh City 8,993,0821.1Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, was the capital of South Vietnam prior to reunification.

See also

Notes

  1. The population data is based on city proper instead of metropolitan area

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References

  1. "Decreto Supremo Nº1672" (PDF). doctoraedilicia.com. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  2. "Remember This? Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa".
  3. "Ten major cities' population up by 74pc" . Retrieved 2017-09-06.
  4. "Daily Mashriq" (in Urdu). Retrieved 2017-09-06.
  5. "District Wise Census Results Census 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-29.
  6. Dept. of Household Registration, Ministry of the Interior Republic of China(Taiwan) (2018-05-01). "Dept. of Household Registration, Ministry of the Interior. Republic of China(Taiwan)". Dept. of Household Registration, Ministry of the Interior. Republic of China(Taiwan). Retrieved 2023-10-22.