Capital cities of the world

The capital of every one of the 196 countries in a sortable table with coordinates, elevation and city population. Below it: the countries that split capital functions between cities, the capitals being moved, the highest, northernmost and closest capitals, and capitals by first letter.

Capitals and relocations reviewed 12 November 2026 · Sources & methodology

196Capitals, one per country

3,631 mLa Paz, the highest seat of government

64.1° NReykjavík, the northernmost capital

7.4 kmKinshasa to Brazzaville, the closest pair of separate capitals

All 196 capitals

Search by country or capital, filter by continent, or sort any column. Where a country divides capital functions, the table shows the city named as the capital in Wikidata—Pretoria for South Africa, Sucre for Bolivia—and the section below explains the others. Populations are for the city proper, not the metropolitan area, and come from different census years, so use them to compare orders of magnitude rather than exact ranks.

196 countries. Scroll the table for all entries.

Capitals of the 196 countries; coordinates and elevation from Wikidata, populations from GeoNames (city proper).

Afghanistan	Kabul	4,434,550	34.53	69.17	1,790
Albania	Tirana	418,495	41.33	19.82	110
Algeria	Algiers	2,364,230	36.78	3.06	0
Andorra	Andorra la Vella	20,430	42.51	1.52	1,022
Angola	Luanda	2,776,168	-8.84	13.23	6
Antigua and Barbuda	St John’s	51,737	17.12	-61.84	0
Argentina	Buenos Aires	2,891,082	-34.60	-58.38	25
Armenia	Yerevan	1,144,700	40.18	44.51	987
Australia	Canberra	367,752	-35.29	149.13	578
Austria	Vienna	1,691,468	48.21	16.37	198
Azerbaijan	Baku	2,351,300	40.37	49.84	-28
Bahamas	Nassau	227,940	25.08	-77.34	34
Bahrain	Manama	147,074	26.22	50.58	—
Bangladesh	Dhaka	10,356,500	23.73	90.39	4
Barbados	Bridgetown	98,511	13.10	-59.62	1
Belarus	Minsk	1,742,124	53.90	27.56	280
Belgium	Brussels	1,019,022	50.85	4.35	70
Belize	Belmopan	13,381	17.25	-88.77	76
Benin	Porto-Novo	264,320	6.48	2.62	38
Bhutan	Thimphu	98,676	27.47	89.63	2,321
Bolivia	Sucre	224,838	-19.05	-65.26	2,810
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sarajevo	696,731	43.86	18.41	527
Botswana	Gaborone	246,325	-24.66	25.91	1,014
Brazil	Brasília	2,207,718	-15.79	-47.88	1,171
Brunei	Bandar Seri Begawan	64,409	4.92	114.92	14
Bulgaria	Sofia	1,152,556	42.70	23.32	560
Burkina Faso	Ouagadougou	2,415,266	12.37	-1.53	305
Burundi	Gitega	64,904	-3.43	29.93	1,504
Cambodia	Phnom Penh	1,573,544	11.57	104.92	11
Cameroon	Yaoundé	1,299,369	3.86	11.52	764
Canada	Ottawa	1,017,449	45.42	-75.70	70
Cape Verde	Praia	137,868	14.92	-23.51	1
Central African Republic	Bangui	812,407	4.37	18.56	369
Chad	N'Djamena	1,359,526	12.11	15.05	298
Chile	Santiago	4,837,295	-33.44	-70.65	575
China	Beijing	18,960,744	39.90	116.41	43
Colombia	Bogotá	7,674,366	4.61	-74.08	2,640
Comoros	Moroni	74,749	-11.70	43.25	29
Costa Rica	San José	335,007	9.93	-84.08	1,161
Croatia	Zagreb	663,592	45.81	15.98	127
Cuba	Havana	2,163,824	23.14	-82.36	59
Cyprus	Nicosia	200,452	35.17	33.37	220
Czech Republic	Prague	1,165,581	50.09	14.42	235
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Kinshasa	16,000,000	-4.32	15.31	240
Denmark	Copenhagen	1,153,615	55.68	12.57	14
Djibouti	Djibouti	626,512	11.60	43.15	14
Dominica	Roseau	16,571	15.30	-61.38	43
Dominican Republic	Santo Domingo	2,201,941	18.46	-69.94	14
Ecuador	Quito	2,781,641	-0.22	-78.51	2,850
Egypt	Cairo	9,606,916	30.04	31.24	23
El Salvador	San Salvador	525,990	13.70	-89.19	670
Equatorial Guinea	Ciudad de la Paz	2,000	1.59	10.82	454
Eritrea	Asmara	563,930	15.33	38.92	2,325
Estonia	Tallinn	394,024	59.44	24.75	28
Eswatini	Mbabane	76,218	-26.32	31.13	1,243
Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	3,860,000	9.04	38.75	2,355
Fiji	Suva	77,366	-18.13	178.43	0
Finland	Helsinki	658,864	60.17	24.94	17
France	Paris	2,138,551	48.86	2.35	48
Gabon	Libreville	846,090	0.41	9.44	13
Gambia	Banjul	37,274	13.45	-16.58	0
Georgia	Tbilisi	1,049,498	41.72	44.79	575
Germany	Berlin	3,426,354	52.52	13.38	34
Ghana	Accra	1,963,264	5.56	-0.20	61
Greece	Athens	664,046	37.98	23.73	74
Grenada	St. George's	7,500	12.05	-61.75	30
Guatemala	Guatemala City	994,938	14.64	-90.51	1,500
Guinea	Conakry	1,928,389	9.51	-13.71	13
Guinea-Bissau	Bissau	439,704	11.86	-15.58	0
Guyana	Georgetown	235,017	6.81	-58.15	0
Haiti	Port-au-Prince	1,234,742	18.55	-72.34	98
Honduras	Tegucigalpa	850,848	14.11	-87.20	990
Hungary	Budapest	1,741,041	47.50	19.04	117
Iceland	Reykjavík	118,918	64.15	-21.94	8
India	New Delhi	—	28.61	77.21	216
Indonesia	Jakarta	8,540,121	-6.18	106.83	91
Iran	Tehran	7,153,309	35.69	51.39	1,179
Iraq	Baghdad	7,216,000	33.32	44.37	34
Ireland	Dublin	1,024,027	53.35	-6.26	20
Israel	Jerusalem	971,800	31.78	35.23	754
Italy	Rome	2,318,895	41.89	12.48	21
Ivory Coast	Yamoussoukro	275,686	6.82	-5.27	214
Jamaica	Kingston	937,700	17.97	-76.79	9
Japan	Tokyo	9,733,276	35.69	139.69	6
Jordan	Amman	1,275,857	31.95	35.93	776
Kazakhstan	Astana	1,544,142	51.13	71.43	347
Kenya	Nairobi	4,397,073	-1.29	36.82	1,661
Kiribati	South Tarawa	40,311	1.33	172.97	3
Kuwait	Kuwait City	60,064	29.38	47.98	16
Kyrgyzstan	Bishkek	900,000	42.87	74.57	750
Laos	Vientiane	840,940	17.98	102.63	174
Latvia	Riga	742,572	56.95	24.11	6
Lebanon	Beirut	1,916,100	33.89	35.51	0
Lesotho	Maseru	359,753	-29.31	27.48	1,600
Liberia	Monrovia	1,542,549	6.31	-10.80	—
Libya	Tripoli	1,302,947	32.89	13.19	81
Liechtenstein	Vaduz	5,197	47.14	9.52	455
Lithuania	Vilnius	542,366	54.69	25.28	112
Luxembourg	Luxembourg	76,684	49.61	6.13	300
Madagascar	Antananarivo	1,349,501	-18.91	47.53	1,276
Malawi	Lilongwe	1,115,815	-13.99	33.77	1,050
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	1,453,975	3.15	101.70	50
Maldives	Malé	103,693	4.18	73.51	2
Mali	Bamako	4,227,569	12.65	-7.99	350
Malta	Valletta	6,794	35.90	14.51	56
Marshall Islands	Majuro	25,400	7.09	171.38	3
Mauritania	Nouakchott	1,184,530	18.09	-15.98	7
Mauritius	Port Louis	155,226	-20.16	57.50	134
Mexico	Mexico City	12,294,193	19.35	-99.14	2,240
Micronesia	Palikir	6,942	6.92	158.19	80
Moldova	Chișinău	635,994	47.02	28.84	85
Monaco	Monaco	32,965	43.73	7.42	—
Mongolia	Ulaanbaatar	844,818	47.92	106.91	1,350
Montenegro	Podgorica	236,852	42.44	19.26	49
Morocco	Rabat	1,655,753	34.02	-6.84	87
Mozambique	Maputo	1,254,837	-25.97	32.57	31
Myanmar	Naypyidaw	925,000	19.75	96.12	115
Namibia	Windhoek	386,219	-22.57	17.08	1,650
Nauru	Yaren (seat of government)	—	-0.55	166.92	25
Nepal	Kathmandu	1,442,271	27.71	85.32	1,300
Netherlands	Amsterdam	741,636	52.37	4.88	-2
New Zealand	Wellington	381,900	-41.29	174.78	0
Nicaragua	Managua	973,087	12.15	-86.27	—
Niger	Niamey	1,323,691	13.52	2.12	207
Nigeria	Abuja	2,690,000	9.06	7.49	360
North Korea	Pyongyang	3,222,000	39.02	125.75	38
North Macedonia	Skopje	474,889	42.00	21.43	251
Norway	Oslo	1,082,575	59.91	10.74	23
Oman	Muscat	797,000	23.61	58.59	69
Pakistan	Islamabad	—	33.70	73.04	490
Palau	Ngerulmud	—	7.50	134.62	—
Palestine	Ramallah	43,880	31.90	35.20	847
Panama	Panama City	408,168	8.97	-79.53	20
Papua New Guinea	Port Moresby	283,733	-9.48	147.15	74
Paraguay	Asunción	1,482,200	-25.28	-57.63	43
Peru	Lima	7,737,002	-12.06	-77.04	154
Philippines	Manila	1,600,000	14.60	120.98	9
Poland	Warsaw	1,702,139	52.23	21.01	118
Portugal	Lisbon	517,802	38.71	-9.14	100
Qatar	Doha	344,939	25.29	51.53	0
Republic of the Congo	Brazzaville	1,982,000	-4.27	15.27	320
Romania	Bucharest	1,877,155	44.41	26.10	70
Russia	Moscow	10,381,222	55.75	37.62	156
Rwanda	Kigali	1,132,686	-1.95	30.12	1,567
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Basseterre	12,920	17.30	-62.73	15
Saint Lucia	Castries	20,000	14.01	-60.99	2
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Kingstown	24,518	13.16	-61.23	1
Samoa	Apia	40,407	-13.83	-171.83	2
San Marino	San Marino	4,500	43.93	12.45	675
Sao Tome and Principe	São Tomé	53,300	0.34	6.73	137
Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	4,205,961	24.65	46.71	612
Senegal	Dakar	2,646,503	14.67	-17.43	10
Serbia	Belgrade	1,273,651	44.82	20.46	117
Seychelles	Victoria	22,881	-4.62	55.45	—
Sierra Leone	Freetown	802,639	8.49	-13.24	26
Singapore	Singapore	5,638,700	1.30	103.80	—
Slovakia	Bratislava	423,737	48.15	17.11	152
Slovenia	Ljubljana	272,220	46.05	14.51	309
Solomon Islands	Honiara	56,298	-9.43	159.95	29
Somalia	Mogadishu	2,587,183	2.04	45.34	9
South Africa	Pretoria	2,112,693	-25.75	28.19	1,339
South Korea	Seoul	10,349,312	37.56	126.99	38
South Sudan	Juba	450,000	4.85	31.58	550
Spain	Madrid	3,255,944	40.42	-3.70	663
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	—	6.90	79.92	27
Sudan	Khartoum	1,974,647	15.60	32.53	382
Suriname	Paramaribo	223,757	5.87	-55.17	3
Sweden	Stockholm	1,515,017	59.33	18.07	—
Switzerland	Bern	121,631	46.95	7.45	542
Syria	Damascus	1,569,394	33.51	36.29	680
Taiwan	Taipei	7,871,900	25.04	121.56	10
Tajikistan	Dushanbe	679,400	38.57	68.79	706
Tanzania	Dodoma	765,179	-6.18	35.75	1,120
Thailand	Bangkok	5,104,476	13.75	100.52	2
Timor-Leste	Dili	150,000	-8.55	125.58	11
Togo	Lomé	2,188,376	6.13	1.22	10
Tonga	Nukuʻalofa	22,400	-21.13	-175.20	3
Trinidad and Tobago	Port of Spain	49,031	10.67	-61.52	3
Tunisia	Tunis	693,210	36.80	10.18	4
Turkey	Ankara	3,517,182	39.94	32.84	938
Turkmenistan	Ashgabat	1,030,063	37.95	58.38	219
Tuvalu	Funafuti	6,320	-8.50	179.12	—
Uganda	Kampala	1,680,600	0.31	32.58	1,190
Ukraine	Kyiv	2,952,301	50.45	30.52	179
United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	1,807,000	24.45	54.40	14
United Kingdom	London	8,961,989	51.51	-0.13	4
United States	Washington, D.C.	—	38.90	-77.04	72
Uruguay	Montevideo	1,270,737	-34.91	-56.19	41
Uzbekistan	Tashkent	1,978,028	41.31	69.28	455
Vanuatu	Port Vila	35,901	-17.73	168.32	59
Vatican City	Vatican City	829	41.90	12.45	—
Venezuela	Caracas	3,000,000	10.51	-66.91	920
Vietnam	Hanoi	8,053,663	21.02	105.84	16
Yemen	Sanaa	1,937,451	15.35	44.20	2,150
Zambia	Lusaka	2,212,301	-15.42	28.28	1,279
Zimbabwe	Harare	1,542,813	-17.83	31.05	1,492

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Latitude is positive north of the equator, longitude positive east of Greenwich. A dash means no value in the source: GeoNames lists no population under the names New Delhi, Islamabad, Washington, D.C., Ngerulmud, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte or Yaren, and Wikidata has no elevation for 10 mostly coastal capitals.

The highest, lowest and farthest-flung capitals

“Highest capital” has two answers. La Paz, where Bolivia’s president and legislature sit, lies at about 3,631 m, but the constitution names Sucre the capital. Counting official capitals only, Quito is highest at about 2,850 m. In all, 8 capitals in the table lie above 2,000 m, most of them in the Andes and the East African and Ethiopian highlands. At the other extreme, Baku (-28 m) and Amsterdam (-2 m) lie below sea level.

The ten highest capitals in the table (official capitals)
Capital	Country	Elevation
Quito	Ecuador	2,850 m
Sucre	Bolivia	2,810 m
Bogotá	Colombia	2,640 m
Addis Ababa	Ethiopia	2,355 m
Asmara	Eritrea	2,325 m
Thimphu	Bhutan	2,321 m
Mexico City	Mexico	2,240 m
Sanaa	Yemen	2,150 m
Kabul	Afghanistan	1,790 m
Nairobi	Kenya	1,661 m

Northernmost: Reykjavík (64.1° N), Helsinki (60.2° N), Oslo (59.9° N), Tallinn (59.4° N), Stockholm (59.3° N). Southernmost: Wellington (41.3° S), Canberra (35.3° S), Montevideo (34.9° S), Buenos Aires (34.6° S), Santiago (33.4° S). Only 40 of the 196 capitals lie south of the equator, a reflection of how much of the world’s land is in the northern hemisphere. The capitals closest to the equator are Quito (0.2° S), Kampala (0.3° N), São Tomé (0.3° N), Libreville (0.4° N).

The closest capitals

Vatican City sits inside Rome, so their reference points are only 2.7 km apart. Kinshasa and Brazzaville face each other across the Congo River, the closest pair of capitals in separate cities. Measured between Wikidata’s reference points:

Rome (Italy) – Vatican City (Vatican City): 2.7 km
Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo) – Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo): 7.4 km
Jerusalem (Israel) – Ramallah (Palestine): 13 km
Vienna (Austria) – Bratislava (Slovakia): 55 km
Amman (Jordan) – Ramallah (Palestine): 69 km
Jerusalem (Israel) – Amman (Jordan): 69 km
Tallinn (Estonia) – Helsinki (Finland): 82 km
Beirut (Lebanon) – Damascus (Syria): 83 km

The two capitals farthest apart are Asunción and Taipei, 19,930 km apart—almost exactly on opposite sides of the Earth, whose half-circumference is about 20,000 km.

Countries with more than one capital

Some countries divide the roles of a capital—seat of government, parliament, courts, the constitutional title—between cities. Others name one capital in law but govern from somewhere else, and a few have no capital in law at all.

Split, disputed or unusual capitals, reviewed 12 November 2026
Country	Capitals	Details
South Africa	Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial)	The Supreme Court of Appeal sits in Bloemfontein; the Constitutional Court has always sat in Johannesburg.
Bolivia	Sucre (constitutional), La Paz (seat of government)	The 2009 constitution names Sucre the capital, which keeps the top courts; the president and legislature have sat in La Paz since 1899.
Netherlands	Amsterdam (constitutional), The Hague (seat of government)	The constitution names Amsterdam only in connection with the monarch’s inauguration; parliament, government and the Supreme Court are in The Hague.
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur (capital), Putrajaya (administrative centre)	Ministries moved to Putrajaya from 1999 and the courts in 2003; parliament and the king’s palace remain in Kuala Lumpur.
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative), Colombo (commercial)	Parliament moved to Kotte in 1982; many government offices remain in neighbouring Colombo.
Ivory Coast	Yamoussoukro (official since 1983), Abidjan (economic)	Only the Senate and the chamber of traditional chiefs sit in Yamoussoukro; the presidency and National Assembly are in Abidjan.
Benin	Porto-Novo (constitutional), Cotonou (seat of government)	The National Assembly sits in Porto-Novo; the presidency and most ministries are in Cotonou.
Eswatini	Mbabane (administrative), Lobamba (legislative and royal)	Parliament and the Queen Mother’s residence are in Lobamba.
Burundi	Gitega (political), Bujumbura (economic)	Gitega was designated the political capital in 2019; ministries are moving gradually.
Chile	Santiago (capital), Valparaíso (seat of Congress)	Congress has met in Valparaíso since 1990 under Law 18.678.
Montenegro	Podgorica (capital), Cetinje (old royal capital)	Both titles are set out in Article 5 of the constitution.
Palestine	East Jerusalem (designated), Ramallah (administrative centre)	The Basic Law names Jerusalem the capital; the Palestinian Authority is administered from Ramallah.
Israel	Jerusalem (proclaimed)	Parliament, government and the Supreme Court are in Jerusalem, but most states do not recognise it as the capital and keep embassies in the Tel Aviv area; ten had embassies in Jerusalem in October 2026.
Switzerland	Bern (“federal city”)	Swiss law has no capital as such; Bern has been the seat of government since 1848 and the Federal Supreme Court is in Lausanne.
Nauru	None; Yaren is the seat of government	No law designates a capital. The country renamed itself the Republic of Naoero in 2026.

Capitals on the move

Building a new capital is a long project, and the legal move often comes years after the first ministries relocate. Status on 12 November 2026:

Indonesia

Jakarta remains the legal capital. Nusantara, on Borneo, is under construction; the formal move needs a presidential decree, which had not been signed by October 2026. The Constitutional Court confirmed on 12 May 2026 that Jakarta stays the capital until then. Government planning targets Nusantara as the seat of government (“political capital”) in 2028.

Egypt

Cairo remains the constitutional capital (Article 222). Parliament, the cabinet and ministries already work from the new capital city east of Cairo; in 2022 Cairo’s boundaries were redrawn to take in the parliament site. President Sisi said in October 2026 that no constitutional change is planned.

South Korea

Seoul remains the capital; a full move requires a constitutional amendment. Thirteen of 19 ministries are already in Sejong, the presidential office is due to open there by 2029 and the National Assembly complex by 2033.

Iran

Tehran remains the capital. The government said in January 2025 that a move to the Makran coast on the Gulf of Oman was being seriously considered, and in November 2025 President Pezeshkian called a move unavoidable because of Tehran’s water crisis. No law, budget or timetable has followed.

Equatorial Guinea

Completed on paper: a decree of 2 January 2026 made Ciudad de la Paz, a planned city on the mainland, the capital in place of Malabo. Ministries are moving gradually.

Completed moves since 1990: Equatorial Guinea 2026 (Malabo → Ciudad de la Paz); Tanzania 2023 (Dar es Salaam → Dodoma, completed with the new State House); Burundi 2019 (Bujumbura → Gitega); Myanmar 2005 (Yangon → Naypyidaw); Kazakhstan 1997 (Almaty → Astana); Nigeria 1991 (Lagos → Abuja). Purpose-built capitals such as Brasília, Canberra, Islamabad and Abuja explain why a capital is often not a country’s largest city: in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United States, for example, a much larger commercial centre exists elsewhere.

Capital names and first letters

11 capitals contain the name of their country: Andorra la Vella, Djibouti, Guatemala City, Kuwait City, Luxembourg, Mexico City, Monaco, Panama City, San Marino, Singapore, Vatican City. The biggest capitals by city-proper population in GeoNames are Beijing (19.0 million), Kinshasa (16.0 million), Mexico City (12.3 million), Moscow (10.4 million), Dhaka (10.4 million); metropolitan-area rankings differ.

The most common first letters are B (25), S (19), M (18); no capital in this list starts with E, X.

A (16)

Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Algiers, Amman, Amsterdam, Andorra la Vella, Ankara, Antananarivo, Apia, Ashgabat, Asmara, Astana, Asunción, Athens

B (25)

Baghdad, Baku, Bamako, Bandar Seri Begawan, Bangkok, Bangui, Banjul, Basseterre, Beijing, Beirut, Belgrade, Belmopan, Berlin, Bern, Bishkek, Bissau, Bogotá, Brasília, Bratislava, Brazzaville, Bridgetown, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Buenos Aires

C (8)

Cairo, Canberra, Caracas, Castries, Chișinău, Ciudad de la Paz, Conakry, Copenhagen

D (9)

Dakar, Damascus, Dhaka, Dili, Djibouti, Dodoma, Doha, Dublin, Dushanbe

F (2)

Freetown, Funafuti

G (4)

Gaborone, Georgetown, Gitega, Guatemala City

H (5)

Hanoi, Harare, Havana, Helsinki, Honiara

I (1)

Islamabad

J (3)

Jakarta, Jerusalem, Juba

K (11)

Kabul, Kampala, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kigali, Kingston, Kingstown, Kinshasa, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait City, Kyiv

L (10)

Libreville, Lilongwe, Lima, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Lomé, London, Luanda, Lusaka, Luxembourg

M (18)

Madrid, Majuro, Malé, Managua, Manama, Manila, Maputo, Maseru, Mbabane, Mexico City, Minsk, Mogadishu, Monaco, Monrovia, Montevideo, Moroni, Moscow, Muscat

N (10)

N'Djamena, Nairobi, Nassau, Naypyidaw, New Delhi, Ngerulmud, Niamey, Nicosia, Nouakchott, Nukuʻalofa

O (3)

Oslo, Ottawa, Ouagadougou

P (16)

Palikir, Panama City, Paramaribo, Paris, Phnom Penh, Podgorica, Port Louis, Port Moresby, Port of Spain, Port Vila, Port-au-Prince, Porto-Novo, Prague, Praia, Pretoria, Pyongyang

Q (1)

Quito

R (7)

Rabat, Ramallah, Reykjavík, Riga, Riyadh, Rome, Roseau

S (19)

San José, San Marino, San Salvador, Sanaa, Santiago, Santo Domingo, São Tomé, Sarajevo, Seoul, Singapore, Skopje, Sofia, South Tarawa, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, St John’s, St. George's, Stockholm, Sucre, Suva

T (11)

Taipei, Tallinn, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Tegucigalpa, Tehran, Thimphu, Tirana, Tokyo, Tripoli, Tunis

U (1)

Ulaanbaatar

V (7)

Vaduz, Valletta, Vatican City, Victoria, Vienna, Vientiane, Vilnius

W (4)

Warsaw, Washington, D.C., Wellington, Windhoek

Y (4)

Yamoussoukro, Yaoundé, Yaren (seat of government), Yerevan

Z (1)

Zagreb

Capitals by continent and quizzes

Capital lists and quizzes by continent
Continent	Capitals	List	Quiz
Africa	54	Capitals of Africa	Africa capitals quiz
Americas	35	Capitals of Americas	Americas capitals quiz
Asia	46	Capitals of Asia	Asia capitals quiz
Europe	47	Capitals of Europe	Europe capitals quiz
Oceania	14	Capitals of Oceania	Oceania capitals quiz

Frequently asked questions

How many capital cities are there in the world?

This page lists 196, one per country in our directory, but a few countries divide capital functions between cities (South Africa has three) and Nauru has no official capital at all. Counting every city with a constitutional or official capital role gives a slightly higher number.

What is the highest capital city in the world?

La Paz, Bolivia’s seat of government, at about 3,631 m (Guinness World Records). If only official capitals count, Quito in Ecuador (about 2,850 m) is highest, followed by Sucre, Bolivia’s constitutional capital (about 2,810 m), and Bogotá (2,640 m).

What is the northernmost and southernmost capital?

Reykjavík in Iceland (64.1° N) is the northernmost capital of a sovereign country; Nuuk in Greenland lies slightly further north but Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Wellington in New Zealand (41.3° S) is the southernmost.

Which two capitals are closest together?

Rome and Vatican City (2.7 km between the reference points) — Vatican City is an enclave within Rome. The closest pair of capitals in separate cities is Kinshasa and Brazzaville, about 7.4 km apart on opposite banks of the Congo River.

Which countries are moving their capital?

Indonesia (to Nusantara) and South Korea (partly to Sejong) are building new government centres but have not formally moved; Egypt’s government works from its new capital while Cairo remains the constitutional capital. Equatorial Guinea decreed its move from Malabo to Ciudad de la Paz in January 2026.

Sources & methodology

Capitals follow the city chosen for each profile in Wikidata (the first named where several exist). Distances are great-circle distances between Wikidata’s reference coordinates, so pairs inside the same urban area measure only a few kilometres. Elevations are Wikidata’s preferred or best-referenced value, with reviewed corrections recorded in the generator. Populations are matched to GeoNames only by the capital’s own name. Legal status and relocation details are dated to 12 November 2026.

Wikidata: capital (P36), coordinates (P625) and elevation (P2044)
Capital names and coordinates retrieved 2026-10-10; elevations retrieved 2026-11-12. Elevations depend on the reference point; Bogotá is replaced by Britannica’s 2,640 m.
GeoNames: GeoNames geographical database, cities15000 (cities1000 for microstates)
City-proper populations of varying years, retrieved 2026-10-19. Not metropolitan totals; left empty where GeoNames has no entry under the capital’s own name.
Guinness World Records: highest capital
La Paz at 3,631 m; Sucre at 2,810 m.
Britannica: Quito and Bogotá
Quito about 2,850 m; Bogotá 2,640 m. Accessed 12 November 2026.
DIRCO (South Africa): three capitals
Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein by branch of government; court seats per the Superior Courts Act 2013.
Constitutions of Bolivia (2009), Benin (1990), Montenegro (2007), Egypt (2014) and the Palestinian Basic Law
Capital provisions: Bolivia Art. 6, Benin Art. 1, Montenegro Art. 5, Egypt Art. 222, Palestine Art. 3.
Swiss Confederation: political system
Bern as the “federal city” rather than a de jure capital.
ABC News: Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara
19 October 2026; transfer decree not yet signed. Constitutional Court ruling of 12 May 2026 reported by Jawa Pos (13 May 2026); Perpres 79/2025 reported by CNN Indonesia (20 September 2025).
The National: Sisi says no changes planned to Egypt’s constitution
14 October 2026. Al-Ahram (2022, February 2026) on the boundary change and the new capital’s status.
Korea Times: ministries to relocate to Sejong by 2031
13 October 2026; presidential office by 2029 (Korea Times, 12 August 2026).
Africanews: Equatorial Guinea relocates its capital
5 January 2026; decree signed 2 January.
Iran International and Algemeiner: Iran’s capital relocation debate
January and 20 November 2025.
Times of Israel: Colombia opens embassy in Jerusalem
14 October 2026; the tenth embassy in Jerusalem.
The Citizen (Tanzania): Dodoma State House inaugurated
May 2023.

Country lists follow our 196-profile directory convention: 193 UN members, Vatican City, Palestine and Taiwan. Dependent territories are identified separately. A missing observation never means zero.