List of countries with multiple capitals

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:

  Sovereign state
  State with limited recognition
  Dependent territory
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

Main article: List of former national capitals

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

Notes

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Rabouni as one of the capitals of Western Sahara is located outside this country, in Tindouf, Algeria.

References

  1. ^ Swaney, Deanna (1994). Samoa: Western & American Samoa: a Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit. Lonely Planet Publications. ISBN 9780864422255.
  2. ^ Revised Constitution of American Samoa, American Samoa Bar Association. Archived January 13, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ 3.0207 Divisions and sessions—Composition Archived December 2, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Code Annotated, American Samoa Bar Association.
  4. ^ 3.0303 Sessions-Petit jury Archived December 2, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Code Annotated, American Samoa Bar Association.
  5. ^ American Samoa Observatory, Trip to Tula Archived January 25, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  6. ^ American Samoa Representative and Liaison Offices Archived March 1, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, U.S. Department of the Interior.
  7. ^ Tutuila Island Map Archived January 16, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, National Park Service.
  8. ^ "Loi n°1/04 du 04 février 2019 portant Fixation de la Capitale Politique et de la Capitale Economique du Burundi". 13 February 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  9. ^ "Constitution of the Republic of Honduras". Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  10. ^ "Cote d'Ivoire", The World Factbook, archived from the original on 9 January 2021, retrieved 22 August 2024
  11. ^ United Nations A/67/L.28 General Assembly Archived 1 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine. 26 November 2012.
  12. ^ "Palestinians win implicit U.N. recognition of sovereign state". Reuters. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  13. ^ "Security Council Fails to Recommend Full United Nations Membership for State of Palestine, Owing to Veto Cast by United States | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". press.un.org. Archived from the original on 23 April 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  14. ^ "UN assembly approves resolution granting Palestine new rights and reviving its UN membership bid". AP News. 10 May 2024. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  15. ^ Borger, Julian (18 April 2024). "US vetoes Palestinian request for full UN membership". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  16. ^ Segal, Jerome M., Chapter 9, "The State of Palestine, The Question of Existence", in Philosophical perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Tomis Kapitan editor, M.E. Sharpe, 1997, ISBN 1-56324-878-6.
  17. ^ Boyle, Francis A. Creation of the State of Palestine; 1 Eur. J. Int'l L. 301 (1990)
  18. ^ Kearney, Michael and Denayer, Stijn, Al-Haq Position Paper on Issues Arising from the Palestinian Authority's Submission of a Declaration to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute (24 December 2009), para 43.a.
  19. ^ Dugard, John (22 July 2009; Op-Ed essay). "Take the Case". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  20. ^ Presidential Decree No. 940, s. 1976 (29 May 1976), Establishing Manila as the Capital of the Philippines and as the Permanent Seat of the National Government, Manila, Philippines: Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, archived from the original on 25 May 2017, retrieved 4 April 2015
  21. ^ "Quezon City Local Government – Background". Quezon City Local Government. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  22. ^ Al-Sakani, Ali (19 April 2022). "Yemen inaugurates new presidential council". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 8 May 2022. Retrieved 8 May 2022. Yemen's Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, along with other senior government officials, had also arrived in Aden, which serves as Yemen's temporary capital, before the swearing-in ceremony.
  23. ^ Kongens nei - 9. april (Norwegian)
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