All capitals in the world

The population figures given refer primarily to the actual city boundaries. If the urban area differs significantly from this, its population is listed separately. The urban area corresponds to the definition of the United Nations, in which surrounding areas are also included in an agglomeration if the development or settlement cannot or can hardly be separated from the city proper. It happens that the population of the agglomeration is lower than that of the administrative city area. Then, for example, outlying districts are so separated by development that they no longer visually belong to the city.

Capital cities in Europe

Capital cities in the Americas

Capital cities in Asia

Capital cities in Africa

Capitals of Oceania

What is a capital city?

In most cases, the capital is a central city with the most important collection of political institutions. Originally this meant the seat of government. However, as it happens from time to time, that a seat of government is moved, and the term persisting capital has become more and more popular. Today, this term has mainly symbolic meaning and is not always synonymous with the seat of government.

For example, the Dutch have the seat of government in The Hague, while the capital is Amsterdam. Germany also had several seats of government (Berlin, Bonn and for a short time Flensburg) while the capital city was Bonn from 1949 to 1990. Before and after that, it has always been Berlin.

There is a special feature in South Africa. Here there is no official single capital city, as its tasks were distributed over several cities. The seat of the executive is Pretoria, the legislative has its seat in Cape Town and the judiciary in Bloemfontein. The seat of government, however, is only in Pretoria, which is why this city is usually considered the de facto capital.

Political and economic center

In many cases, the capital is also the largest or at least one of the largest cities in the country. The capital is considered a stable center and therefore attracts large companies. However, there are exceptions to this rule: Washington D.C. may be the capital of the USA, but due to the vastness of the country, it has never been able to develop into the economic center. To date, Washington is not even among the 20 largest cities in the country.

Smallest capitals in the world

By far, the smallest capitals in the world are Adamstown on the Pitcairn Islands with 47 inhabitants and King Edward Point on the South Sandwich Islands with only 12 inhabitants. Neither of these are independent and sovereign states, but British overseas territories. Montserrat is also a British overseas territory. According to the constitution, the city Plymouth is still the official capital. After several volcanic eruptions between 1995 and 1997, there is no longer a single resident and access to the city is closed. The city of Brades became the de facto capital afterwards.

Data as CSV file

A more detailed list of all capital cities can also be found as a CSV file in the download area.