List of countries whose capital is not their largest city

This is a list of sovereign states whose capital is not their largest city.

CountryCapitalPopulationLargest cityPopulationRatioNotes
 AustraliaCanberra426,704Sydney5,312,16312.6Canberra has been Australia's Capital City since 1913, however the national parliament was based in Melbourne, Victoria until 1927
 BelizeBelmopan20,621Belize City61,7623.07Belize City was the capital until 1970.
 BeninPorto-Novo264,320Cotonou761,1003.4Cotonou is the de facto capital with seat of government. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
 BoliviaSucre259,388Santa Cruz de la Sierra[1]1,453,5497.1La Paz is the de facto capital with seat of government, is the third largest city of Bolivia and is the center of the second metropolitan area.
 BrazilBrasília3,039,444São Paulo12,252,0234.25Brasília 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 fifth most populous city in Brazil, and the seventh largest metropolitan area.
 BurundiGitega41,944Bujumbura1,092,85926.06Bujumbura was the capital until 2019.
 CameroonYaoundé1,430,000Douala2,000,000 +1.4Yaoundé is the second largest city of Cameroon.
 CanadaOttawa934,243Toronto2,731,5713.08Toronto was the capital of the united Province of Canada from 1849 to 1852 and 1856–1858. For some years Kingston was the de facto capital, but when it came time to form the United Province of Canada in 1841 this needed to be official. There was a lot of disagreement, but Queen Victoria made her ruling (supported by a vote with a majority of 3) that it should be Ottawa.[2]
 People's Republic of ChinaBeijing22,000,000Shanghai30,484,3001.39Beijing is the third largest city proper of China, after Chongqing and Shanghai, although the population of Chongqing includes a significant number of rural residents and the urban area has around 18 million people. Shanghai has more urban population at 24 million.
 Côte d'IvoireYamoussoukro200,659Abidjan4,348,00021.7Abidjan was the capital until 1983.
 Equatorial GuineaMalabo187,302Bata250,7701.34The capital Malabo is the second largest city of Equatorial Guinea. It is to be replaced by the planned city of Oyala, currently under construction.
 GambiaBanjul31,301Serrekunda337,0002.18 
 IndiaNew Delhi249,998Mumbai12,442,37349.77New Delhi is part of the Delhi metropolitan area which has 21,753,486 inhabitants (the Mumbai metropolitan region has 20,748,395).
 KazakhstanNur-Sultan743,014Almaty1,450,0951.95Almaty was the capital from 1927 to 1997. Nur-Sultan was named Astana until 2019.
 LiechtensteinVaduz5,109Schaan5,8061.14Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
 Federated States of MicronesiaPalikir5,000Weno13,0001.4Palikir is the second largest city of Micronesia.
 MoroccoRabat627,000Casablanca4,150,0006.62Rabat is the seventh largest city of Morocco.
 MyanmarNaypyidaw925,000Yangon4,346,0004.7Yangon was the capital until 2006. Naypyidaw is de facto mainly rural county rather than contiguous urban area
 New ZealandWellington215,100Auckland1,470,1006.83Auckland was the capital 1841–1865, and Russell in 1840–41.
 NigeriaAbuja778,567Lagos7,937,93210.2Lagos was the capital until 1991.
 Pakistan[3][4][5]Islamabad1,014,825Karachi14,910,35214.69Karachi was the capital from 1947 to 1958. Islamabad is part of much larger Rawalpindi-Islamabad metropolitan area
 PalauNgerulmud271Koror11,20041.32Koror was the capital until 2006.
 PhilippinesManila1,780,148Quezon City2,936,1161.67Quezon City was the capital from 1948 until 1976. Both cities are in the Metropolitan Manila region with Quezon City bordering Manila on the northeast.
 San MarinoSan Marino4,211Serravalle10,6012.52 
 South AfricaPretoria2,345,908Johannesburg3,888,1801.66Cape Town (pop. 3.5 million) and Bloemfontein (pop. 370,000) serve as legislative and judicial capitals, respectively.
 Sri LankaSri Jayawardenepura Kotte115,826Colombo642,1635.54Colombo was the official administrative capital until 1982, when it became the commercial capital.
  SwitzerlandBern138,041Zürich397,6982.88Switzerland in its nature as a country with in every dimension decentralized political power actually doesn't have a capital (just as it doesn't have a head of state or prime minister). Bern has been designated as "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. Today, important federal authorities are also located in Lausanne (most notably: the Federal Supreme Court), Zürich, Lucerne, Bellinzona and St. Gallen. Until 1798, the council of the Swiss states met in various places - most frequently in Lucerne, Zürich, Baden and Frauenfeld. Between 1798 and 1803 there were three subsequent cities of government: Aarau, Luzern and Bern. Between 1815 and 1848 the meeting place of the council changed every two years between Zürich, Bern and Lucerne.
 TaiwanTaipei2,650,968New Taipei3,916,4511.48Both cities are in Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area with Taipei surrounded entirely by New Taipei, which was Taipei's suburbs before its comprehensive development.
 TanzaniaDodoma324,347Dar es Salaam2,497,9407.70Dar es Salaam was the capital until 1974.
 Trinidad and TobagoPort of Spain49,000Chaguanas67,4001.37Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
 TurkeyAnkara5,150,072Istanbul14,377,0183.4Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 to 1922.
 United Arab EmiratesAbu Dhabi896,751Dubai2,262,0002.52Abu Dhabi is the second largest city of United Arab Emirates.
 United States of AmericaWashington, D.C.705,749New York City8,398,74812.72New 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).
 VietnamHanoi6,500,000Ho Chi Minh City7,123,3401.1Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, was the capital of South Vietnam prior to reunification.
Countries whose capital is not their largest city.

See also

References
  1. "Decreto Supremo Nº1672" (PDF). doctoraedilicia.com. Retrieved 2013-05-31.
  2. https://www.ottawamatters.com/remember-this/remember-this-queen-victoria-chooses-ottawa-1162999
  3. "Ten major cities' population up by 74pc". Retrieved 2017-09-06.
  4. "Daily Mashriq". 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.
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