List of countries whose capital is not their largest city

Countries whose capital is not their largest city or metropolitan area.

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

Country	Capital	Population	Largest city	Population	Ratio	Note
Australia	Canberra	390,706	Sydney	4,921,000	12.6	Although Canberra has been Australia's Capital City since circa 1913, the national parliament met in Melbourne, Victoria until 1927. Melbourne is Australia's 2nd most populous city (4,529,500)
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. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
Bolivia	Sucre	259,388	Santa Cruz de la Sierra[1]	1,453,549	7.1	La Paz is the de facto capital with seat of government, is the third largest city of Bolivia and is the center of the second metropolitan area.
Brazil	Brasília	2,557,158	São Paulo	11,150,249	4.55	Brasília is a planned city, inaugurated in 1960, and serving as the Brazilian capital since then. Rio de Janeiro, the former capital, was the capital of Brazil from 1763 until 1960 (and largest city in Brazil from 1654 to 1954). São Paulo has never been the capital, but became the most populous city in Brazil in 1954, a position it has held since then. As of the 2010 Brazilian census, Brasília is the fifth most populous city in Brazil, and the seventh largest metropolitan area.
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.
China	Beijing	22,000,000	Shanghai	34,000,000	1.55	Beijing is the second largest city of China by a relatively small margin. Shanghai is the largest city proper in China and the world.
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.
Equatorial Guinea	Malabo	187,302	Bata	250,770	1.34	The capital Malabo is the second largest city of Equatorial Guinea and has the specificity of being located on an island even though the country possesses mainland. It is about to be replaced by the planned city of Oyala, currently under construction.
India	New Delhi	249,998	Mumbai	12,442,373	49.77	New Delhi is part of the Delhi metropolitan area which has 21,753,486 inhabitants (the Mumbai metropolitan region has 20,748,395).
Kazakhstan	Astana	743,014	Almaty	1,450,095	1.95	Almaty was the capital from 1927 to 1997.
Liechtenstein	Vaduz	5,109	Schaan	5,806	1.14	Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
Malta	Valletta	6,000	Birkirkara	21,000	3.5	Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
Federated States of Micronesia	Palikir	5,000	Weno	13,000	1.4
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. Naypyidaw is de facto mainly rural county rather than contiguous urban area
New Zealand	Wellington	405,000	Auckland	1,495,000	3.69	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	24,300,000	13.97	Karachi was the capital from 1947 to 1958. Islamabad is part of much larger Rawalpindi-Islamabad metropolitan area
Palau	Ngerulmud	271	Koror	11,200	41.32	Koror was the capital until 2006.
Philippines	Manila	1,780,148	Quezon City	2,936,116	1.67	Quezon City was the capital from 1948 until 1976. Both cities are in the Metropolitan Manila region with Quezon City bordering Manila on the northeast.
San Marino	San Marino	4,211	Serravalle	10,601	2.52
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	Wikipedia articles on Khartoum and Omdurman contradict this. Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	115,826	Colombo	642,163	5.54	Colombo was the capital until 1982.
Switzerland	Bern	138,041	Zürich	397,698	2.88	Switzerland in its nature as a country with in every dimension decentralized political power actually doesn't have a capital (just as it doesn't have a head of state or prime minister). Bern has been designated as "federal city" with the seat of the two parliament chambers in 1848, when for the first time the independent Swiss states established standing federal authorities. Today, important federal authorities are also located in Lausanne (most notably: the Federal Supreme Court), Zürich, Lucerne, Bellinzona and St. Gallen. Until 1798, the council of the Swiss states met in various places - most frequently in Lucerne, Zürich, Baden and Frauenfeld. Between 1798 and 1803 there were three subsequent cities of government: Aarau, Luzern and Bern. Between 1815 and 1848 the meeting place of the council changed every two years between Zürich, Bern and Lucerne.
Taiwan	Taipei	2,650,968	New Taipei	3,916,451	1.48	Both cities are in Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area with Taipei surrounded entirely by New Taipei, which was Taipei's suburbs before its comprehensive development.
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	Both cities are part of the same metropolitan area
Turkey	Ankara	5,150,072	Istanbul	14,377,018	3.4	Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 to 1922.
United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	896,751	Dubai	2,262,000	2.52
United States	Washington, D.C.	672,228	New York City	8,550,405	12.72	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.

See also

• List of second cities
• List of national capitals and largest cities by country
• List of largest cities and second largest cities by country
• List of capital cities by relative size

References

1. "Decreto Supremo Nº1672" (PDF). doctoraedilicia.com. Retrieved 2013-05-31.