There are 195 countries in the world at the moment. There will only be one city that is known as the capital of the country. Find a list of all the capital cities in the world, broken down by country.
All Capitals in the World
What is the capital city
As of 2022, the world has 195 separate countries, and each one has a capital city or town. For most countries, the constitution or laws that the country follows spell out where the capital is.
Most of the time, the largest city in a country is also its capital city.
Most of the time, the capital city is where the government is based. A lot of the time, it's also where the main offices and branches of government are.
A country's capital is often its center for business, culture, and people. In the past, trade, communication, and transportation often centered in capital cities.
The capital city of some countries is more than one city. The National Congress of Chile is in Valparaiso, even though Santiago is the capital of Chile. People call Dar es Salaam the capital of Tanzania, but most of the government is in Dodoma.
Finally, not every country agrees that there should only be one national capital. In the case of Bolivia, La Paz is the administrative capital and Sucre is the constitutional capital. South Africa has three capitals: Pretoria is the seat of government, Cape Town is the seat of government, and Bloemfontein is the seat of government.
A country's capital is often its center for business, culture, and people. In the past, trade, communication, and transportation often centered in capital cities.
It's not often that a capital city is built just to be a capital city. Brasilia, Brazil's capital, was built by the government only to be a government city.
How are capital cities chosen
To show how fair their government is, many countries choose capitals that are in the middle of the country's landmass. This way, the capital is less likely to be or look biased toward one region over another.
Population may be the main reason why a country would rather pick an existing city as its capital than build a whole new one. Capital cities are usually the ones with the most people.
A capital city can also mean that politicians are willing to work together, like in the US.
A country's choice of capital has sometimes been based on politics alone, without any thought for the consequences. The capital of Myanmar is called Nay Pyi Taw, which in Burmese means "Abode of Kings." The name of the city comes from where it was built.
The city that a country chooses as its capital becomes a big part of what it means to be a nation. People live in the city, and tourists come to see it. It is also the city chosen to represent the whole country to the rest of the world.
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