World Capitals: The Complete List of All 195 Capital Cities

There are 195 national capitals in the world if you count the 193 member states of the United Nations plus its two observer states, Vatican City and Palestine. Most countries have one capital that hosts the head of state, parliament and government, but about a dozen split those roles between two or three cities, as Bolivia (Sucre and La Paz) and South Africa (Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein) do. The list also changes: Equatorial Guinea moved its capital from Malabo to the new inland city of Ciudad de la Paz in January 2026, Burundi made Gitega its political capital in 2019, and Indonesia is building Nusantara to replace Jakarta. The full A to Z list is below, followed by the capitals grouped by how they came to be and where they sit.

All 195 Capitals, From Kabul to Harare

The table follows the list of national capitals kept on Wikipedia, which itself follows the ISO 3166-1 standard. Where a country’s constitution and its working government point to different cities, both are given. Jerusalem appears twice because it is claimed by both Israel and Palestine; most countries keep their embassies to Israel in and around Tel Aviv, and the city’s status is not settled internationally.

Split and Shared Capitals: Bolivia, South Africa, the Netherlands and Others

The most common reason for a two-city answer is a constitution that names one place while the government works from another. Bolivia’s constitution names Sucre, the seat of the judiciary and the Supreme Court of Justice, while the presidency and legislature operate from La Paz. South Africa divides the three branches of state: Pretoria is the administrative capital, Cape Town the seat of Parliament and Bloemfontein the judicial capital, while the largest city, Johannesburg, holds none of the three roles; our guide to South Africa’s three capitals explains how it works. The Netherlands names Amsterdam as its capital, but the monarch, ministries, Supreme Court and foreign embassies are in The Hague.

Malaysia moved its federal government from Kuala Lumpur to the planned city of Putrajaya in 1999 and the judiciary in 2003, yet Kuala Lumpur remains the capital under the constitution and still hosts the king and Parliament. Côte d’Ivoire made Yamoussoukro its official capital in 1983, but Abidjan, the largest city, remains the economic capital and still hosts some government offices. Benin’s official capital is Porto-Novo while the government works from Cotonou. In Sri Lanka, Parliament sits in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, a suburb of Colombo, which keeps the executive and judiciary. Eswatini divides its capital between Mbabane, the administrative seat, and Lobamba, the royal and legislative one.

Some splits are the result of conflict or transition. Yemen’s legal capital is Sanaa, but Houthi forces have held the city since September 2014, and the internationally recognized government has worked from Aden. Tanzania announced in 1974 that it would move its capital from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma, which became the official capital in 1996, yet Dar es Salaam still hosts ministries, the judiciary and embassies. Chile’s capital is Santiago, but its National Congress meets in the port city of Valparaíso. Nauru has no official capital at all; its government offices are in Yaren district. Switzerland has never named a capital in law and calls Bern its “federal city”.

Capitals that are not the largest city in their country are just as common. Canberra, Ottawa, Washington, Ankara, Bern, Abuja, Brasília and Wellington all trail a bigger commercial centre, a pattern traced in our list of capital cities that are not the largest city.

Capitals Built From Scratch, From Washington in 1800 to Ciudad de la Paz in 2026

A surprising share of today’s capitals were drawn on a planner’s table, usually to move government away from a crowded port or to sit between rival regions. Washington became the seat of the United States government in 1800, when Congress moved there from Philadelphia and John Adams moved into the newly finished White House. Canberra was chosen as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne; designed by the American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, it received Parliament from Melbourne on 9 May 1927.

The 20th century produced the boldest examples. Ankara officially replaced Constantinople as Turkey’s capital on 13 October 1923. Brasília, planned by Lúcio Costa with buildings by Oscar Niemeyer, was inaugurated on 21 April 1960 to replace Rio de Janeiro and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. Islamabad, laid out by the Greek planner Constantinos Doxiadis below the Margalla Hills, replaced Karachi in 1967. Belize founded Belmopan, 80 km inland from the old capital of Belize City, in 1970. Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja, at the geographic centre of the country, on 12 December 1991.

The most recent wave is in Asia and Africa. Kazakhstan moved its capital from Almaty to Astana in 1997; the city was called Nur-Sultan from 2019 to 2022. Myanmar’s government left Yangon for the newly built Naypyidaw, “abode of the king”, on 6 November 2005, a story told in our profile of the capital of Myanmar. Egypt inaugurated its New Capital, east of Cairo, as the seat of government on 2 April 2024, though Cairo remains the listed capital. Equatorial Guinea’s government began moving to Ciudad de la Paz, still under construction near Mengomeyén in Río Muni, in early 2017, and a presidential decree of 2 January 2026 made the transfer from Malabo official. Indonesia started building Nusantara on Borneo in 2022, with five construction phases planned to run until 2045.

Highest, Lowest, Northernmost and Southernmost: La Paz, Baku, Reykjavík and Wellington

Geography gives capitals their records. La Paz, at roughly 3,650 m, is the world’s highest seat of government, set in a canyon cut by the Choqueyapu River below the snow-capped Illimani. If Sucre is taken as Bolivia’s capital instead, the record passes to Quito at 2,850 m. Addis Ababa, at 2,355 m, is the highest capital in Africa, and Thimphu, which ranges from 2,248 to 2,648 m, the highest in Asia.

Five more seats of government stand above 2,200 m. Sucre, Bolivia’s constitutional capital, lies at 2,790 m; Bogotá averages 2,640 m on the Bogotá savanna in the Colombian Andes; Asmara, at 2,325 m, is the second-highest capital in Africa; Sanaa sits at 2,300 m between the mountains of Jabal An-Nabi Shu’ayb and Jabal Tiyal; and Mexico City lies at 2,240 m in the Valley of Mexico, ringed by volcanoes over 5,000 m high.

At the other extreme, Baku lies 28 m below sea level on the shore of the Caspian Sea, making it the lowest national capital and the largest city in the world below sea level. Reykjavík, at 64°08′ N, is the northernmost capital of a sovereign state; Nuuk in Greenland lies about 4 km further north but is the capital of a self-governing territory rather than an independent country. Wellington, at the southwestern tip of New Zealand’s North Island, is the southernmost capital and, by average wind speed, the windiest city in the world. Two capitals face each other across a river: Kinshasa and Brazzaville, capitals of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, stand on opposite banks of the Congo River.