Capital Cities by Population

List of All Capitals by Population
Methodology

List of All Capitals by Population

A massive thank you to user Vicky for helping to compile this list!

Rank	Country	Capital	Population
1	Japan	Tokyo	37,468,302
2	India	New Delhi	28,513,682
3	Mexico	Mexico City	21,580,827
4	Egypt	Cairo	20,076,002
5	China	Beijing	19,617,963
6	Bangladesh	Dhaka	19,578,421
7	Argentina	Buenos Aires	14,966,530
8	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Kinshasa	13,171,256
9	Russia	Moscow	12,409,738
10	France	Paris	10,900,952
11	Colombia	Bogotá	10,574,409
12	Indonesia	Jakarta	10,516,927
13	Peru	Lima	10,390,607
14	Thailand	Bangkok	10,156,316
15	South Korea	Seoul	9,963,497
16	United Kingdom	London	9,046,485
17	Iran	Tehran	8,895,947
18	Angola	Luanda	7,774,200
19	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	7,563,912
20	Saudi Arabia	Riyadh	6,906,595
21	Iraq	Baghdad	6,811,955
22	Chile	Santiago	6,680,371
23	Spain	Madrid	6,497,124
24	Singapore	Singapore	5,791,901
25	Sudan	Khartoum	5,534,079
26	United States	Washington D.C.	5,206,593
27	Turkey	Ankara	4,919,074
28	Brazil	Brasília	4,469,585
29	South Africa	Cape Town	4,430,367
30	Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	4,399,674
31	Kenya	Nairobi	4,385,853
32	Vietnam	Hanoi	4,282,738
33	Italy	Rome	4,209,710
34	Afghanistan	Kabul	4,011,770
35	Cameroon	Yaoundé	3,655,656
36	Germany	Berlin	3,552,123
37	Paraguay	Asunción	3,222,199
38	Dominican Republic	Santo Domingo	3,172,152
39	Greece	Athens	3,155,600
40	Madagascar	Antananarivo	3,058,387
41	North Korea	Pyongyang	3,037,862
42	Kuwait	Kuwait City	2,989,270
43	Uganda	Kampala	2,986,352
44	Senegal	Dakar	2,978,419
45	Ukraine	Kyiv	2,956,706
46	Venezuela	Caracas	2,934,560
47	Portugal	Lisbon	2,927,316
48	Nigeria	Abuja	2,918,518
49	Guatemala	Guatemala City	2,851,104
50	Yemen	Sana'a	2,779,317
51	Taiwan	Taipei	2,705,791
52	Algeria	Algiers	2,693,542
53	Haiti	Port-au-Prince	2,636,763
54	Burkina Faso	Ouagadougou	2,531,381
55	Zambia	Lusaka	2,523,844
56	Uzbekistan	Tashkent	2,463,969
57	Mali	Bamako	2,446,749
58	Ghana	Accra	2,439,389
59	Lebanon	Beirut	2,385,271
60	South Africa	Pretoria	2,378,350
61	Syria	Damascus	2,319,545
62	Tunisia	Tunis	2,290,777
63	Azerbaijan	Baku	2,285,729
64	Republic of the Congo	Brazzaville	2,229,693
65	Cuba	Havana	2,136,468
66	Somalia	Mogadishu	2,081,624
67	Jordan	Amman	2,064,582
68	Belgium	Brussels	2,049,510
69	Belarus	Minsk	2,004,672
70	Cambodia	Phnom Penh	1,952,329
71	Austria	Vienna	1,900,547
72	Morocco	Rabat	1,846,661
73	Philippines	Manila	1,846,513
74	Guinea	Conakry	1,843,121
75	Ecuador	Quito	1,822,397
76	Romania	Bucharest	1,821,380
77	Bolivia	La Paz	1,814,087
78	Panama	Panama City	1,783,490
79	Poland	Warsaw	1,767,798
80	Hungary	Budapest	1,759,497
81	Togo	Lomé	1,745,744
82	Uruguay	Montevideo	1,736,989
83	Sweden	Stockholm	1,582,968
84	Mongolia	Ulaanbaatar	1,520,381
85	Zimbabwe	Harare	1,515,016
86	Oman	Muscat	1,446,563
87	United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	1,419,699
88	Liberia	Monrovia	1,418,300
89	Serbia	Belgrade	1,389,351
90	Canada	Ottawa	1,363,159
91	Honduras	Tegucigalpa	1,363,041
92	Costa Rica	San José	1,357,745
93	Nepal	Kathmandu	1,329,732
94	Chad	N'Djamena	1,322,679
95	Denmark	Copenhagen	1,320,826
96	Czech Republic	Prague	1,291,552
97	Finland	Helsinki	1,279,096
98	Bulgaria	Sofia	1,272,418
99	Niger	Niamey	1,213,781
100	Mauritania	Nouakchott	1,205,414
101	Ireland	Dublin	1,201,426
102	Libya	Tripoli	1,157,746
103	Sierra Leone	Freetown	1,135,949
104	Netherlands	Amsterdam	1,131,690
105	El Salvador	San Salvador	1,106,698
106	Mozambique	Maputo	1,101,771
107	Armenia	Yerevan	1,080,324
108	Georgia	Tbilisi	1,077,333
109	Kazakhstan	Astana	1,068,113
110	Pakistan	Islamabad	1,061,412
111	Rwanda	Kigali	1,057,836
112	Nicaragua	Managua	1,047,923
113	Malawi	Lilongwe	1,029,639
114	Norway	Oslo	1,012,225
115	Kyrgyzstan	Bishkek	996,319
116	Israel	Jerusalem	907,062
117	Eritrea	Asmara	895,863
118	Tajikistan	Dushanbe	872,653
119	Central African Republic	Bangui	850,946
120	Gabon	Libreville	813,489
121	Turkmenistan	Ashgabat	810,186
122	Croatia	Zagreb	685,587
123	Benin	Cotonou	685,458
124	Laos	Vientiane	664,754
125	Latvia	Riga	637,089
126	Qatar	Doha	633,401
127	Jamaica	Kingston	589,083
128	North Macedonia	Skopje	584,208
129	Bahrain	Manama	564,631
130	Djibouti	Djibouti	561,564
131	Guinea-Bissau	Bissau	558,399
132	South Africa	Bloemfontein	545,875
133	Trinidad and Tobago	Port-of-Spain	544,417
134	Lithuania	Vilnius	536,055
135	Moldova	Chișinău	509,707
136	Myanmar	Naypyidaw	500,218
137	Albania	Tirana	475,577
138	Australia	Canberra	447,692
139	Gambia	Banjul	437,161
140	Estonia	Tallinn	437,027
141	Slovakia	Bratislava	429,920
142	Switzerland	Bern	422,153
143	New Zealand	Wellington	411,346
144	Namibia	Windhoek	404,280
145	South Sudan	Juba	368,914
146	Papua New Guinea	Port Moresby	366,862
147	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sarajevo	342,577
148	Equatorial Guinea	Malabo	296,770
149	Slovenia	Ljubljana	286,491
150	Benin	Porto-Novo	285,328
151	East Timor	Dili	281,135
152	Bahamas	Nassau	279,668
153	Bolivia	Sucre	277,910
154	Cyprus	Nicosia	269,469
155	Botswana	Gaborone	269,338
156	Tanzania	Dodoma	261,645
157	Suriname	Paramaribo	239,457
158	Ivory Coast	Yamoussoukro	231,072
159	Iceland	Reykjavík	216,364
160	Malta	Valletta	212,768
161	Bhutan	Thimphu	203,297
162	Lesotho	Maseru	201,851
163	Fiji	Suva	178,339
164	Montenegro	Podgorica	177,177
165	Maldives	Malé	176,851
166	Cape Verde	Praia	167,504
167	Kosovo	Pristina	161,751
168	Mauritius	Port Louis	149,365
169	Burundi	Gitega	135,467
170	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	119,752
171	Guyana	Georgetown	109,934
172	Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	103,248
173	Barbados	Bridgetown	89,201
174	Solomon Islands	Honiara	81,801
175	São Tomé and Príncipe	São Tomé	80,099
176	Eswatini	Mbabane	68,010
177	Kiribati	South Tarawa	64,011
178	Comoros	Moroni	62,351
179	Vanuatu	Port Vila	52,690
180	Brunei	Bandar Seri Begawan	40,781
181	Grenada	Saint George's	39,297
182	Monaco	Monaco	38,897
183	Samoa	Apia	36,066
184	Marshall Islands	Majuro	30,661
185	Seychelles	Victoria	28,091
186	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Kingstown	26,636
187	Belize	Belmopan	22,964
188	Tonga	Nukuʻalofa	22,904
189	Andorra	Andorra la Vella	22,614
190	Saint Lucia	Castries	22,258
191	Antigua and Barbuda	Saint John's	20,764
192	Dominica	Roseau	14,942
193	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Basseterre	14,434
194	Tuvalu	Funafuti	7,042
195	Federated States of Micronesia	Palikir	6,996
196	Liechtenstein	Vaduz	5,470
197	San Marino	San Marino	4,465
198	Nauru	Yaren	810
199	Vatican City	Vatican City	801
200	Palau	Ngerulmud	271

Methodology

Our data is derived from these sources.

Population for most cities: U.N. Population Estimates, 2018 estimates
Gitega, Pristina and Ngerulmud: Wikipedia, retrieved February 2022
Yaren: citypopulation.de, retrieved February 2022
Manila: Wikipedia, 2020 census. There is a common misconception that Metro Manila = Manila Capital, this is not true and so Manila has been manually adjusted.

In general, numbers are sensible urban estimates.

Level 43

Feb 19, 2022

Thought JetPunk stopped doing this charts...

Level 68

Feb 19, 2022

It's just a way to have a reliable source of data for our quizzes to refer to (since external sources like Wikipedia keep changing).

Level 74

Apr 26, 2022

Why is Manila the only capital that is measured by city proper population? None of the other cities have it like that. For example, Yokohama is included in Tokyo's population. Why must Manila and only Manila get this treatment?

Level 66

May 15, 2022

IAB is now Vicky

Level 56

Oct 19, 2022

haha, it's 200 because of south africa and bolivia

Level 56

Oct 19, 2022

also, nur-sultan is now astana again

Level 66

Mar 10, 2023

Also Benin.

Level 56

Jan 31, 2023

Isn't the population of New Delhi only ~250,000? Or is it by metropolitan population?

Level 73

Dec 25, 2023

It’s the Delhi/ New Delhi urban area

Level 66

Aug 16, 2023

Others have pointed this out but I don't understand the singling out of Manila for the metro population thing. Many other cities on this list are calculated using urban areas that include other cities (Tokyo and New Delhi are particularly egregious examples). If you're going to use the Kanto metro region for Tokyo you should definitely use Metro Manila for Manila.