World Capitals List

World capital cities list: every country and its capital

There are 197 capital cities in this list, one for each country. The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., of the United Kingdom London, of France Paris, of Japan Tokyo and of Australia Canberra; the full list of world capitals, A–Z by country, is below.

How to use World Capitals List

Type a country or a capital into the search box to filter the table, or sort any column to see the list by population, area or name. Use it as a checking sheet while you play the capital quizzes, or print it as a study list. Capitals that trip people up are usually the ones that are not the largest city — learn those as a separate short list.

It runs entirely in your browser, needs no account and works on phones, tablets and Chromebooks.

What the data covers

The tool draws on the same dataset as every quiz on this site: 197 countries, 144 currencies and 107 official languages. The largest country by land area is Russia (17,098,242 km²) and the smallest is Vatican City. The most widely shared currency (code EUR) is used by 26 countries, and the most common official languages are English (58 countries), French (30 countries), Arabic (25 countries).

Frequently asked questions

How many capital cities are there in the world?

This list has 197 capital cities, one for each of the 197 countries in the table: the 193 United Nations member states (un.org) plus Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan. A few countries split the job of capital between two or three cities, so some lists count slightly more.

Which countries have more than one capital?

South Africa has three: Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontein (judicial). Bolivia's constitutional capital is Sucre while the government sits in La Paz. The Netherlands' capital is Amsterdam, but the government and parliament are in The Hague. The table lists Pretoria, Sucre and Amsterdam.

Which capital cities are not the largest city in their country?

Many of the ones people get wrong in quizzes: Canberra (Australia, not Sydney), Ottawa (Canada, not Toronto), Washington, D.C. (United States, not New York), Brasília (Brazil, not São Paulo), Ankara (Turkey, not Istanbul), Abuja (Nigeria, not Lagos) and Wellington (New Zealand, not Auckland).

What is the capital of the largest country in the world?

Moscow. Russia is the largest country by land area in this list, followed by Canada, whose capital is Ottawa.

What is the best way to memorize world capitals?

Learn one continent at a time, test yourself rather than rereading, and review the ones you miss a day or two later. Use this list as the answer sheet, then play the Country to Capital and Capital to Country quizzes until you can name them without looking.

Get the free Mind Skills Arcade app

Brain games for memory, logic, math and focus, free and offline: Get it on Google Play · Download on the App Store