List of countries whose capital is not their largest city

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

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

Countries whose capital is not their largest city.

Country	Capital	Population	Largest city	Population	Ratio	Note
Australia	Canberra	345,000	Sydney	4,500,000	13.0
Belgium	Brussels	157,673	Antwerp	483,505	3.07	Official city population; Brussels does have a larger metro area.
Belize	Belmopan	16,400	Belize City	70,000	4.27	Belize City was the capital until 1970.
Benin	Porto-Novo	223,500	Cotonou	761,100	3.4	Cotonou is the de facto capital with seat of government.
Bolivia	Sucre	225,000	Santa Cruz de la Sierra	1,594,926	7.1	La Paz is the de facto capital with seat of government, and also is at the center of the country's largest metropolitan area.
Brazil	Brasília	2,557,158	São Paulo	11,150,249	4.55
Cameroon	Yaoundé	1,430,000	Douala	2,000,000 +	1.4	Yaoundé is the second largest city of Cameroon.
Canada	Ottawa	812,129	Toronto	2,503,281	3.08	Toronto was the capital of the united Province of Canada from 1849 to 1852 and 1856–1858.
People's Republic of China	Beijing	22,000,000	Shanghai	23,210,000	1.055	Beijing is the second largest city of China.
Republic of China	Taipei	2,650,968	New Taipei	3,916,451	1.48
Côte d'Ivoire	Yamoussoukro	200,659	Abidjan	4,348,000	21.7	Abidjan was the capital until 1983.
Ecuador	Quito	1,397,698	Guayaquil	2,600,000	1.86	Quito is the second largest city of Ecuador.
India	New Delhi	295,000	Mumbai	13,830,884	46.88	New Delhi is part of the Delhi metropolitan area which has 16,753,235 inhabitants.
Kazakhstan	Astana	691,529	Almaty	1,420,747	2.05	Almaty was the capital until 1997.
Liechtenstein	Vaduz	5,109	Schaan	5,806	1.14
Malta	Valletta	6,000	Birkirkara	21,000	3.5
Federated States of Micronesia	Palikir	5,000	Weno	7,000	1.4
Monaco	Monaco (Monaco-Ville)	1,034	Monte Carlo	15,507	15.0	other cities-historical communes of country (La Condamine - 12,187; Fontvieille - 3,292) larger than capital also; at counts as cities-new quarters capital smaller than all other nine also (largest of them Larvotto - 5,443); all communes and quarters merged into one city de facto
Montenegro	Cetinje	15,000	Podgorica	136,000	9.1	Podgorica is the de facto capital with seat of government.
Morocco	Rabat	627,000	Casablanca	4,150,000	6.62	Rabat is the second largest city of Morocco.
Myanmar	Naypyidaw	925,000	Yangon	4,346,000	4.7	Yangon was the capital until 2006.
New Zealand	Wellington	386,000	Auckland	1,333,300	3.45	Auckland was the capital 1841–1865, and Russell in 1840–41.
Nigeria	Abuja	778,567	Lagos	7,937,932	10.2	Lagos was the capital until 1991.
Pakistan	Islamabad	1,740,000	Karachi	18,000,000	10.28	Karachi was the capital of 1947–1958.
Palau	Ngerulmud	271	Koror	11,200	41.32	Koror was the capital until 2006.
Philippines	Manila	1,660,714	Quezon City	2,679,450	1.61	Quezon City was the capital 1948–1976.
San Marino	San Marino	4,493	Dogana	7,000	1.56
South Africa	Pretoria	2,345,908	Johannesburg	3,888,180	1.66	Cape Town (pop. 3.5 mln) and Bloemfontein (pop. 370,000) serve as legislative and judicial capitals, respectively.
Sudan	Khartoum	2,207,794	Omdurman	2,395,159	1.08
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte	115,826	Colombo	642,163	5.54	Colombo was the capital until 1982.
Switzerland	Bern	122,925	Zürich	365,098	2.97
Syria	Damascus	1,711,000	Aleppo	2,301,570	1.35
Tanzania	Dodoma	324,347	Dar es Salaam	2,497,940	7.70	Dar es Salaam was the capital until 1974.
Trinidad and Tobago	Port of Spain	49,000	Chaguanas	67,400	1.37
Turkey	Ankara	3,763,591	Istanbul	12,782,960	3.4	Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire until 1922.
United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	896,751	Dubai	2,262,000	2.52
United States	Washington, D.C.	601,723	New York City	8,391,881	13.94	New 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.
Vietnam	Hanoi	6,500,000	Ho Chi Minh City	7,123,340	1.1	Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, was the capital of South Vietnam prior to reunification.