List of countries whose capital is not their largest city

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. ^[a]

List

Country	Capital	Population	Largest city	Population	Ratio	Notes
Australia	Canberra	426,704	Sydney	5,312,163	12.6	A 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.
Belgium	Brussels	188,737	Antwerp	536,079	2.84	Considering Brussels metropolitan area has more inhabitants, Antwerp is the largest in city inhabitants.
Belize	Belmopan	20,621	Belize City	61,762	3.07	Belize City was the capital until 1970.
Benin	Porto-Novo	264,320	Cotonou	761,100	3.4	Cotonou is the de facto capital with seat of government. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area.
Bolivia	Sucre	259,388	Santa Cruz de la Sierra [1]	1,453,549	7.1	La Paz is the de facto capital with the seat of government; it is in Bolivia's second most populous metropolitan area.
Brazil	Brasília	3,500,000	São Paulo	12,252,023	4.25	Brasília 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.
Burundi	Gitega	41,944	Bujumbura	1,092,859	26.06	Bujumbura was the capital until 2019.
Cameroon	Yaoundé	1,430,000	Douala	2,000,000 +	1.4	Yaoundé is the second largest city in Cameroon.
Canada	Ottawa	1,017,449	Toronto	2,794,356	3.08	Toronto 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 ]
China	Beijing	22,000,000	Shanghai (urban metropolitan area)	30,484,300	1.39	With a population of more than 19 million, Beijing is the second largest city in China, after Shanghai. However, the size of Chonqging Municipality is about that of the sovereign country of Austria. University of Washington professor Kam Wing Chan argued that Chongqing's status is more akin to that of a province rather than a city. [3]
			Chongqing (city boundaries)	32,054,159	1.46
Ecuador	Quito	1,763,275	Guayaquil	2,650,288	1.5
Gambia	Banjul	31,301	Serrekunda	337,000	2.18
India	New Delhi	249,998	Mumbai	12,442,373	49.77	In 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.
Israel	Jerusalem (limited recognition)	363,095 (excluding East Jerusalem)	Tel Aviv	460,613	1.2	Jerusalem 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 occupation of East Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. Without East Jerusalem, Tel Aviv is Israel's largest city.
Ivory Coast	Yamoussoukro	200,659	Abidjan	4,348,000	21.7	Abidjan was the capital until 1983.
Kazakhstan	Astana	743,014	Almaty	1,450,095	1.95	Almaty was the capital from 1927 to 1997. Astana was named Nur-Sultan from 2019 until 2022.
Liechtenstein	Vaduz	5,109	Schaan	6,039	1.14	Vaduz is the second largest city in Liechtenstein. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area.
Federated States of Micronesia	Palikir	5,000	Weno	13,000	1.4	Palikir is the second largest city of Micronesia.
Malta	Valletta	5,827	St. Paul's Bay	29,097	6.62	Valletta is part of the Central Region, a conurbation with a population of 111,994.
Morocco	Rabat	627,000	Casablanca	4,150,000	6.62	Rabat is the seventh largest city in Morocco.
Myanmar	Naypyidaw	925,000	Yangon	4,346,000	4.7	Yangon was the capital until 2006. Naypyidaw is a planned city and not does not have contiguous urban areas or a proper metro area.
New Zealand	Wellington	208,800	Auckland	1,530,500	7.33	Auckland was the capital from 1841 to 1865.
Nigeria	Abuja	778,567	Lagos	7,937,932	10.2	Lagos was the capital until 1991.
Pakistan [4] [5] [6]	Islamabad	1,014,825	Karachi	14,910,352	14.69	Karachi was the capital from 1947 to 1958.
Palau	Ngerulmud	0	Koror	11,200	-	Koror was the capital until 2006.
Palestine	Jerusalem (limited recognition)	-	Gaza City	590,481	13.0	Jerusalem is claimed as the capital of the State of Palestine although East Jerusalem is still under Israeli occupation since 1967. Gaza City is the country's largest city prior to evacuations in 2023.
	Ramallah (administrative centre)	104,173
Philippines	Manila	1,780,148	Quezon City	2,936,116	1.67	Quezon 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.
San Marino	San Marino	4,211	Serravalle	10,601	2.52
South Africa	Pretoria	2,345,908	Johannesburg	5,635,000	1.66	Cape Town (pop. 4.8 million) and Bloemfontein (metro pop. 747,431) serve as legislative and judicial capitals respectively.
Switzerland	Bern	138,041	Zürich	397,698	2.88	Switzerland 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.
Taiwan [7]	Taipei	2,668,572	New Taipei	4,004,367	1.5	Despite having no formal designation to the national capital of the ROC by law, Taipei has been the seat of the ROC central government since 1949.
Tanzania	Dodoma	324,347	Dar es Salaam	2,497,940	7.70	Dar es Salaam was the capital until 1974.
Trinidad and Tobago	Port of Spain	49,000	Chaguanas	67,400	1.37	Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area.
Turkey	Ankara	5,150,072	Istanbul	14,377,018	3.4	Istanbul (as Constantinople) was the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 to 1922.
United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	896,751	Dubai	2,262,000	2.52	Abu Dhabi is the second largest city in the United Arab Emirates.
United States	Washington, D.C.	705,749	New York City	8,398,748	12.72	New York was the capital from 1785 to 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, D.C. is the 22nd-largest city in the United States, but the Washington metropolitan area is the seventh-largest and Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area is the third-largest.
Vietnam	Hanoi	8,053,663	Ho Chi Minh City	8,993,082	1.1	Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, was the capital of South Vietnam prior to reunification.

See also

• List of national capitals by population - A list of capitals by population.

Notes

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

References

1. "Decreto Supremo Nº1672" (PDF). doctoraedilicia.com. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
2. "Remember This? Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa".
3. "The world's biggest cities: How do you measure them?". BBC. 29 January 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
4. "Ten major cities' population up by 74pc" . Retrieved 2017-09-06.
5. "Daily Mashriq" (in Urdu). Retrieved 2017-09-06.
6. "District Wise Census Results Census 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-29.
7. 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.