World Capitals Quiz

Updated for South Sudan. Hooray for imagined communities. Watch out for the World Bank and IMF -- they're killers.

Every country is imagined.

How so....

In that the lines we draw and declare to be national boundaries are all made up. There is no objective basis for what constitutes a real country or a made-up one. They are all made up. They are all created by people, all determined by some agenda, and always have been. South Sudan is no more imagined than China, or the USA, or England, or France, or any other place. They're all equally fabricated.

Why aren't the UK countries and Greenland listed? Just curious. I think it would add to the game if you included those. But hey, I already know them so I suppose it won't affect me! Good game. Thanks for creating it. It really helps me with my memorization. I am up to 142. Going for all ;)

Not sovereign states.

Greenland is part of Denmark technically!

106/196, I have bad English, I'm also now drunk. Why capitals of Kuwait, Panama and going on isn't same as name of Country? Also why you don't accept 'k' for 'ch', for example Bukarest, and going on 'ch' for 'kh' Chartum.

finally 195 (after months of trying)!!! forgot nauru... cia factbook says they don't have a capital for some reason

yeah but government offices in yaren district. poor economy since phosphate depletion

Yeah, why aren't the countries in the UK separate? Because there's Edinburgh, Cardiff, London and Belfast in their own rights..

Prob cuz they're all part of the UK. Greenland is part of Denmark.

Finally 196/196! Took about a week to learn them all. I would imagine the UK countries aren't included separately because they're not sovereign states in their own right.

Uh, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the capital of Palau is Melekeok. Or at least according to the CIA factbook...

Melekeok is the state in which Ng-whatever is located.

Why is the capital of the Netherlands listed as Amsterdam or The Hague? Amsterdam is the only right answer.

I agree

You could argue it either way. The cabinet, parliament, the judicial branch, as well as the residence of the Queen are all in Den Haag. Constitutionally, the capital is Amsterdam, so you're right in the aspect, but much, much more of the national government operates in Den Haag.

Love this quiz - it's helped me learn so many capitals

I also thought Melekeok was Palau's. I think Ashkabad should be accepted for Ashgabat. I have never seen it as Ashgabat. Also, this quiz does not have enough time, especially when you have to keep scrolling down to see the next country.

There's plenty of time for this quiz - I only have 5 capitals that I haven't learnt yet, but I still finish the quiz with 2.30 minutes left - plenty of time to write in the couple that I miss

Only right answer for the Netherlands is Amsterdam. The Hague is the political centre, not the capital.

the quiz gives enough time for me, but it may not be enough time for people who don't type very fast. great stuff! and thanks for adding south sudan! :)

Sana should be acceptable for the Capital of Yemen. The front page of the New York Times had the city's name spelled as such last week.

I'm pretty sure Sana is accepted - half the time it accepts my answer before I can even type the second 'a'

got all of 'em with 5 minutes to spare.

Finally hit 100%

4.26 left...wow that was slow - too many typos! need to work at my speed on this one...

Nice quiz! The Hague is not the capital city of the Netherlands, it's Amsterdam. I see you include both, but The Hague is where our government is situated. (I live in the Netherlands). The same story with Bolivia, Sucre is the capital city, La Paz is where the government is situated. I understand why you put in both, but I think it's more fun to just include Amsterdam and Sucre :)

I know all the countries of the world but I only knew 23 capitals. Bit of a fail on my part :(

I only got st vincent and the grenadines because of jamaica otherwise wouldn't have got which would bring my score to 116

Quizmaster, capital of The Netherlands is Amsterdam, not "or The Hague". The Hague is where the government is. The Netherlands is the only country in the world where the governement is not in the capital of the country. And many names are spelled differently in different languages, the bot just accepts english variations. Great quizzees! Cheerio all!

Ever heard of Bolivia?

If they remove the Hague, you'll only have people asking for it to be put back in again...

stupid me i typed Sri Jayewirdenepura Kotte

Done with 3:13 left. It's good that Melekeok is accepted because it is the official capital of Palau. I also don't think that when writing "Kingston", as in Jamaica, it should reveal the capital of St Vincent and Grenadines. Great quiz though

I <3 el salvador <3

Agree with african, Kingstown and Kingston are two completely different things

The capital of netherlands is amsterdam OR The hague. please accept "santa domingo" for dominican rep?

South Sudan is a country.... why do people have no respect for new countries

barf 45%. barf.

86 out of 196. Quite a poor effort, but I did have trouble with spelling and missed the whole of Africa (N-Z) due to time. To say I'm only 14, I am quite proud. :L

Not to make you feel down, but I got 169, know all the countries, many of the flags (I do know almost all of the capitals, I just didn't get round to some) and I just turned 12 :) Oh well

Yay! Finally got them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally conquered this beast 100%

Could you please accept just Guatemala for the capital of Guatemala? Because it is often called just that.

Why is Dar Es salaam accepted as the capital of Tanzania. It was changed to Dodoma in 1996. There is no reason for it to be accepted. Same goes for Sri lanka, the Capital is Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, not Colombo.

awesome game ! started with a score of just 20, a good afternoon's work and finished with 100% correct, with 2.27 mins to spare.. i hope i find a similar game for currencies, official languages and heads of state (though this might need updation every month or less too) also..

i wish they would also give the number and %age of test takers who have got 100% right...just another ego booster :P

I am happy with 83. I got all the European ones!

More people know Paris and Rome than they do D.C., London or Ottawa. Odd.

I honestly forget that Canada exists a lot of the time unless I'm looking at a map, haha.....

More people live elsewhere in the world than they do in the U.s., as do most intellectuals. ....maybe it's not so odd if you realize this.. Just a thought.

My last comment wasn't posted. I guess it was deemed too mean. I'll just say this time that your comment does nothing at all to shore up your own assertion. What an incredibly..... I'll leave the rest to your imagination since I guess I'll get censored if I speak honestly.

Not really odd at all. Rome and Paris are very famous cities in their own right, Washington DC is only really famous for being capital of the United States (though it is very underrated as a tourist destination- great and beautiful city), and Ottawa... who cares about Ottawa? I think most Canadians forget that Ottawa is the capital of Canada.

Boy oh boy - i iz going to have to remember more than i did - cos i iz crap.................

PLEASE increase the time limit to allow 5 seconds per response. This test only allows 3.6 seconds per response. I have a feeling that it can only be accomplished by looking at the list of the capitals and typing them in as fast as possible. The test really should be about knowing the capitals, not typing them super-fast. Just completing the test is a feat of intelligence. The timer takes away from that big time.

Oh, Oh, Den Haag. Wat doe jij hier?

Kyoto should be accepted since really it used to be the capital of Japan and still is considered the capital by some. Kyoto literally translates to "the capital" in English from Japanese, so please accept it?

Peasant! The capital of Sri Lanka is Sri J A Y A W A R D E N A P U R A K O T T E

agreed jaya not jaye as it is now

Every time I take this quiz, when I finish, the next page won't load so I don' get my results.

would love to solve this quiz in Polish version :)

I'd like this quiz to be like the world-quiz where you can allocate the names to areas. I find it a bit hard to remember every city without being able to visualize it. Just an idea ;-)

More time please...I was rattling along, but cant type fast enough it seems.

Also...Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Cyprus are all in Europe, not Asia.

No, just no...

Cyprus is certainly in Europe. Geographically it is European along with all other mediterranean islands (e.g Malta, Balearics, Sicily, Corsica, Greek islands etc). It is a member of the EU and even uses the Euro as a currency. Culturally it is European with historic links to Greece and the West as opposed to arabic countries. Also prior to 1990, all areas within the USSR West of the Urals were considered European. The baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Central Eupropean states (Belaurs, Moldova and Ukraine) and also the South western states of the former Soviet Union remain Part of Europe - i.e Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Geographically they have not moved since their country status has altered, so are still very much European. This is alos boren out by the many cultural links to Europe of these states such as membership of UEFA, participation in the Eurovison Song Contest etc etc etc.

These southwestern former Soviet countries also have many cultural links to Asia and the Middle East. Ultimately, categorizing them as one or the other is just a matter of personal opinion. Same as trying to group people into "races" or other similarly invented social constructs. If you're going to include Azerbaijan and Armenia in Europe then there is a strong case to be made for including Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Cyprus maybe, the others not so much, though I admit the boundary is a bit fuzzy and certainly arbitrary.

100% :D

Just Oceania to go! (sans Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea)

196/196! And I'm 12!

I'm so bad at African capitals... **sigh** time to click on the "take quiz again" button. This is my favorite quiz on this site!!!

Hey, Jetpunk, thanks to all your awesome geography quizzes, I just placed first in my school's geography bee! And I even beat five people that are all in the grades ahead of me! Thanks so much!

76/196 not too bad considering I can barely name half of the countries. I just guessed that santo Domingo was one, and it turned out to be Dominican Republic

Love this quiz! I started out knowing around 60 capitals and now know all 196 after about six weeks of playing. But it would be nice if other countries like Greenland and other small countries - even the individual UK countries - could be included. It would make the quiz even more informative. Also, I wonder, what constitutes a capital city? If it's not the political centre, what is it? Banking? Trade? Size of population? Surely the politics of a country are the main influencing factor so should the capital be determined by where the politics are decided? I don't know, I'm just interested to know what others think, or what the protocol of deciding what the capital city is.

where the top leaders of a country stay and make their decisions Trollol

Finally got them all!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 196 countries of the world, now i know 196 capitals of the world. Thank you, Jetpunk!

Finally got 'em all. Only 23 seconds left, but I finally did it!

Hello everybody. The Netherlands does not have two capitals. The capital of The Netherlands is Amsterdam. It is not The Hague. Not even a little bit. The Hague is as much the capital of The Netherlands as Ouagadougou is the capital of New Zealand. There is no 'or' in the answer to the question 'what is the capital of the Netherlands?' That is because the only answer to that question is Amsterdam. Amsterdam and absolutely nothing else. It is not, not, NOT The Hague. Now I am going to put on my wooden shoes and have a cold Heineken.

Wow, finally got 100%...this quiz not generous with time! I notice it doesn't recognize Palestine as a state...not starting a debate, just saying. I do this quiz on Sporcle and it includes Palestine, making 197 countries :)

Allowing just 12 minutes to take this quiz becomes a typing test rather than a knowledge challenge. I know all the capitals, but I can't type proficiently. I doubt I'll ever be fast enough to max it. Adding two more minutes wouldn't lessen the value of the quiz. Moreover, typing 196 capitals (some with difficult spellings e.g. Ngerulmud, Yamousoukro, Ougadougou) in 720 seconds averages just 3.673469 seconds per capital. Come on now . . .