Some countries have multiple capitals . In some cases, one city is the capital for some purposes, and one or more others are capital for other purposes, without any being considered an official capital in preference to the others.
There are also cases where there is a single legally defined capital, but one or more other cities operate as the seat of government of some or all parts of the national government.
| Country | Capitals | Details |
|---|---|---|
 Benin | Porto-Novo | Official capital |
| Cotonou | De facto administrative capital | |
 Bolivia | Sucre | Constitutional capital |
| La Paz | De facto executive capital | |
 Eswatini | Mbabane | Administrative capital |
| Lobamba | Legislative capital (parliament) and place of royal residence | |
 Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | Constitutional and legislative capital (parliament), seat of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong |
| Putrajaya | Administrative centre and judicial capital; variously referred to as the administrative capital [1] | |
 Netherlands | Amsterdam | Official capital |
| The Hague | Legislative capital (parliament) | |
 South Africa | Pretoria | Administrative and executive capital |
| Bloemfontein | Judicial capital | |
| Cape Town | Legislative capital (parliament) | |
 Sri Lanka | Colombo | Executive and judicial capital |
| Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte | Legislative capital (parliament) |
These countries have had two cities that served as administrative capitals at the same time, for various reasons such as war, weather or partition. In some cases, the second capital is considered a temporary capital.
| Country | Year(s) | Capitals | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
 Afghanistan | 1776–1818 | Kabul | Summer capital |
| Peshawar | Winter capital | ||
 British India | 1858–1947 | Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) (1858–1911) | Administrative capital |
| New Delhi (1911–1947) | |||
| Shimla (formerly Simla) | Summer capital | ||
 Austria-Hungary | 1873–1918 | Vienna | Cisleithania |
| Budapest | Kingdom of Hungary | ||
 Republic of China | 1937–1945 | Nanjing | Capital of the Japanese-controlled puppet state |
| Chongqing | Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China | ||
| 1945–1991 | Nanjing | Administrative, legislative, and judicial capital (claimed between the 1949 Retreat and the 1992 Consensus) | |
| Taipei | Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China on Taiwan | ||
 France | 1940–1944 | Vichy | De facto administrative capital |
| Paris | De jure constitutional capital, also capital for the German military administration | ||
 Kingdom of Italy | 1943–1944 | Brindisi (1943–Feb 1944) | De facto provisional capital |
| Salerno (Feb–Jun 1944) | |||
| Rome | De jure capital until 1944 when it was liberated by the Allies | ||
 Italian Social Republic | 1943–1944 | Salò | De facto capital until 1944 when it became the primary capital |
| Rome | De jure capital until 1944 when it was liberated by the Allies | ||
 Laos | 1947–1975 | Vientiane | Administrative capital |
| Luang Prabang | Royal capital | ||
 Libya | 1951–1963 | Tripoli | One of two official capitals of the Kingdom of Libya, then Bayda became the capital of Libya from 1963 to 1969 |
| Benghazi | |||
 Malawi | 1974–1994 | Lilongwe | Administrative and judiciary capital |
| Zomba | Legislative capital | ||
 Netherlands-Indonesia Union | 1948–1956 | Amsterdam | Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| Jakarta | United States of Indonesia | ||
 Norway | 1940 | Oslo | Official capital |
| Hamar | Temporarily one-day capital that seated the parliament [2] | ||
 Philippines | 1948–1976 | Quezon City | Official capital |
| Manila | De facto seat of government | ||
| 1901–1976 | Baguio | Summer capital (still known as summer capital, outside of political use) | |
 Serbia and Montenegro | 2003–2006 | Belgrade | Administrative and legislative capital |
| Podgorica | Judicial capital |
An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity.
Putrajaya, officially the Federal Territory of Putrajaya, is the administrative centre of Malaysia. The seat of the federal government of Malaysia was moved in 1999 from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya because of overcrowding and congestion in Kuala Lumpur, whilst the seat of the judiciary of Malaysia was later moved to Putrajaya in 2003. Kuala Lumpur remains as Malaysia's national capital city per the constitution and is still the seat of the head of state and the national legislature, as well as being the country's commercial and financial centre.
Cyberjaya is a city with a science park as its core that forms a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia. It is located in Sepang District, Selangor. Cyberjaya is adjacent to and developed along with Putrajaya, Malaysia's government seat. This city aspires to be known as the Silicon Valley of Malaysia.
Urban secession is a city's secession from its surrounding region to form a new political unit.
A capital city or just capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational division, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the government's offices and meeting places; the status as capital is often designated by its law or constitution. In some jurisdictions, including several countries, different branches of government are in different settlements, sometimes meaning multiple official capitals. In some cases, a distinction is made between the official (constitutional) capital and the seat of government, which is in another place.
The seat of government is "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority".
A federal capital is a political entity, often a municipality or capital city, that serves as the seat of the federal government. A federal capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government, where its location and relationship to subnational states are fixed by law or federal constitution. Federal capitals may or may not be considered states in themselves, and either exercise significant political autonomy from the federation or are directly ruled by the national government located within their premises, as federal districts.
A capital district, capital region, or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any political or economic advantage relative to the others because of the national capital lying within its borders. A capital territory can be a specific form of federal district.
A city proper is the geographical area contained within city limits. The term proper is not exclusive to cities; it can describe the geographical area within the boundaries of any given locality. The United Nations defines the term as "the single political jurisdiction which contains the historical city centre. The term is synonymous with Central City in the United States which typically contains much of the lower income population. "
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country, usually an embassy. The term "consulate" may refer not only to the office of a consul, but also to the building occupied by the consul and the consul's staff. The consulate may share premises with the embassy itself.
The Philippines is divided into three major island groups: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. Luzon and Mindanao archipelagoes are both named after the largest island in their respective groups, while the Visayas is an archipelago of roughly similar-sized islands.
Sejong or Sejong City, officially the Sejong Special Self-Governing City, is a special self-governing city and the de facto administrative capital of South Korea.
The capital of Indonesia is Jakarta, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Southeast Asia. Previously known as Batavia, it was the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies. In the early 20th century, the Dutch East Indies government attempted to relocate the capital from Batavia to Bandung. During Indonesia's struggle for independence, the Indonesian government moved the capital to Yogyakarta and then to Bukittinggi, where it remained for a short time until the restoration of control to Jakarta. In 2019, during his annual state of the union address at the parliament, President Joko Widodo announced a plan to relocate the capital to Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. As part of the plan, part of Kutai Kartanegara Regency and Penajam North Paser Regency in East Kalimantan will be carved out to create a new province-level planned city, and the capital will be relocated to a more central location within Indonesia. On 17 January 2022, the name was revealed to be Nusantara.
