List of countries with multiple capitals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some countries can be considered to have multiple capitals. In some cases, one city is the capital for some purposes, and one or more others are capital for other purposes, without any being considered an official capital in preference to the others. There are also cases where there is a single legally defined capital, but one or more other cities operate as the seat of government of some or all parts of the national government; in these situations, sources may disagree on whether these other cities are considered additional capital cities.
More than one capital at present
Color legend:
| Country | Capital | Details |
|---|---|---|
 American Samoa |
Pago Pago | Official capital and home to the territorial government.[1] |
| Fagatogo | Seat of government, where the legislature, High Court and District Court are located.[2][3][4][5] | |
| Utulei | Legislative capital and home to the executive office building of the country.[6][7] | |
 Benin |
Porto-Novo | Official capital. |
| Cotonou | Seat of government; de facto administrative capital. | |
 Bolivia |
Sucre | Constitutional capital. |
| La Paz | Seat of government; de facto executive and legislative capital. | |
 Burundi |
Gitega | Official political capital. |
| Bujumbura | Economic capital and seat of government.[8] | |
 Eswatini |
Mbabane | Administrative capital. |
| Lobamba | Legislative capital and royal residence. | |
 Honduras |
Tegucigalpa | Joint constitutional capital.[9] |
| Comayagüela | ||
 Ivory Coast |
Yamoussoukro | Official capital. |
| Abidjan | De facto administrative capital.[10]
| |
 Malaysia |
Kuala Lumpur | Constitutional and legislative capital; royal seat. |
| Putrajaya | De facto administrative and judicial capital. | |
 Montserrat |
Plymouth | De jure capital. Abandoned in 1997, following a volcanic eruption. A new capital, Little Bay, is currently under construction. |
| Brades | De facto capital. | |
 Netherlands |
Amsterdam | Capital per constitution. |
| The Hague | Seat of government. | |
 Palestine[note 1] |
Jerusalem | Proclaimed capital of the country, but with limited recognition. The Palestinian Declaration of Independence proclaims the "establishment of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory with its capital Jerusalem (Al-Quds Ash-Sharif)". Israel exercises de facto control over Jerusalem, but neither state's claims to Jerusalem are widely recognized by the international community. |
| Ramallah | De facto capital of the country. It is also the administrative capital where government institutions and foreign representative offices are located. | |
 Philippines |
Manila | De jure capital of the country. |
| Metro Manila | De facto capital of the country. While Manila is designated as the country's capital, the seat of government is the National Capital Region, commonly known as "Metro Manila", of which the city of Manila is a part.[20][21] | |
 South Africa |
Pretoria | Administrative and executive capital. |
| Cape Town | Legislative capital. | |
| Bloemfontein | Judicial capital. | |
 South Korea |
Seoul | Official capital and the primary seat of the National Assembly. |
| Sejong City | De facto administrative capital; since the Sejong Government Complex was finished in 2014, some authorities have moved there from Seoul, making it their primary seat. | |
 Sri Lanka |
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte | Legislative capital. |
| Colombo | Executive, judicial, and commercial capital. | |
 Western Sahara[note 2] |
Laayoune | De jure capital of the country due to it being de facto under Morocco's control. |
| Rabouni, Tindouf[note 3] | De facto capital of the country, and also, one of its capitals-in-exile (along with Tifariti). | |
| Tifariti | Provisional capital of the country, and also, one of its capitals-in-exile (along with Rabouni). | |
 Yemen |
Sanaa | Official and constitutional capital. It is still considered the country's de jure capital due to it being under Houthi control since 2014. |
| Aden | Seat of the Presidential Leadership Council (the internationally recognized government of Yemen) and the country's de facto capital. It is currently claimed by this executive body as the country's provisional capital.[22] |
More than one capital in the past
These countries have had two cities that served as administrative capitals at the same time, for various reasons such as war, weather or partition. In some cases, the second capital is considered a temporary capital.
| Country | Year(s) | Capitals | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
 British Raj |
1858–1947 | Kolkata (a.k.a. Calcutta) (1858–1911) | Administrative capital |
| New Delhi (1911–1947) | |||
| Shimla (a.k.a. Simla) | Summer capital | ||
 Austria-Hungary |
1873–1918 | Vienna | Cisleithania |
| Budapest | Kingdom of Hungary | ||
 Republic of China |
1937–1945 | Nanjing (a.k.a. Nanking) | Capital of the Japanese-controlled puppet state |
| Chongqing | Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China | ||
| 1945–1991 | Nanjing | Administrative, legislative, and judicial capital (claimed between the 1949 Retreat and the 1992 Consensus) | |
| Taipei | Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China on Taiwan | ||
 France |
1940–1944 | Vichy | De facto administrative capital |
| Paris | De jure constitutional capital, also capital for the German military administration | ||
 Kingdom of Italy |
1943–1944 | Brindisi (1943–Feb 1944) | De facto provisional capital |
| Salerno (Feb–Jun 1944) | |||
| Rome | De jure capital until 1944 when it was liberated by the Allies | ||
 Italian Social Republic |
1943–1944 | Salò | De facto capital until 1944 when it became the primary capital |
| Rome | De jure capital until 1944 when it was liberated by the Allies | ||
 Laos |
1947–1975 | Vientiane | Administrative capital |
| Luang Prabang | Royal capital | ||
 Libya |
1951–1963 | Tripoli | One of two official capitals of the Kingdom of Libya, then Bayda became the capital of Libya from 1963 to 1969 |
| Benghazi | |||
 Malawi |
1974–1994 | Lilongwe | Administrative and judiciary capital |
| Zomba | Legislative capital | ||
 Netherlands-Indonesia Union |
1948–1956 | Amsterdam | Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| Batavia | United States of Indonesia | ||
 Norway |
1940 | Oslo | Official capital |
| Hamar | Temporarily one-day capital that seated the parliament[23] | ||
 Pakistan |
1962–1971 | Rawalpindi (1962–14 August 1967) | Seat of the government |
| Islamabad (14 August 1967–1971) | |||
| Dhaka | Legislative capital | ||
| Philippines |
1948–1976 | Quezon City | Official capital |
| Manila | De facto seat of government | ||
| 1901–1976 | Baguio | Summer capital (still known as summer capital, outside of political use) | |
 Serbia and Montenegro |
2003–2006 | Belgrade | Administrative and legislative capital |
| Podgorica | Judicial capital |
See also
- List of national capitals - A list of national capitals.
- List of purpose-built national capitals
Notes
- The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) declared the establishment of the State of Palestine on November 15, 1988. As of September 2025, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 157 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, or just over 80% of all UN members. It is a non-member observer state at the United Nations since November 2012.[11][12] This limited status is largely due to the United States, a permanent member of the Security Council with veto power, which has consistently used its veto or threatened to do so to block Palestine’s full membership to UN.[13][14][15] The existence of a state of Palestine is recognized by the states that have established bilateral diplomatic relations with it.[16][17][18][19] There is a wide range of views on the legal status of the State of Palestine, both among international states and legal scholars.
- Western Sahara is recognized by 44 UN member states and South Ossetia. It was proclaimed by the Polisario Front on 27 February 1976, in Bir Lehlou. The Western Sahara government calls the territories under its control the Liberated Territories or the Free Zone. Morocco occupies the rest of the disputed territory, and calls these lands its Southern Provinces. The claimed capital city of Western Sahara is Laayoune, which is also its largest city. Since Western Sahara does not control Laayoune, it has established a temporary capital in Tifariti, although most of the day-to-day administration happens in Rabouni, one of the Sahrawi refugee camps located in Tindouf, Algeria.
- Rabouni as one of the capitals of Western Sahara is located outside this country, in Tindouf, Algeria.