List of countries with multiple capitals

Some countries 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.

  Countries that currently have multiple capital cities

  Countries that have had multiple capital cities in the past

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. While such cases are arguably not technically multiple capitals, the situation is similar; so they are included in this list.

More than one capital at present

Country	Capitals	Details
Benin	Porto-Novo	Official capital; seat of legislature
	Cotonou	De facto seat of government; seat of judicial bodies
Bolivia	Sucre	Official (constitutional) capital; seat of national judiciary
	La Paz	Seat of national executive, legislative, and electoral bodies
Burundi	Gitega	Official (constitutional) capital
	Bujumbura	Seat of national executive
Chile	Santiago	Official capital; seat of national administrative and judicial bodies
	Valparaíso	Seat of national legislature
Ivory Coast	Yamoussoukro	Official capital
	Abidjan	De facto seat of government
Dominican Republic	Santo Domingo	Official capital, seat of all national administrative and legislative bodies and some judiciary bodies
	Santo Domingo Oeste	Seat of the Constitutional Court and the Central Electoral Board
Eswatini	Mbabane	Administrative capital
	Lobamba	Legislative and royal capital
Honduras	Tegucigalpa	De facto capital and, with Comayagüela, one of two cities constituting the Municipality of the Central District, which is the official constitutional capital
	Comayagüela	With Tegucigalpa, one of two cities constituting the Municipality of the Central District, which is the official constitutional capital
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	Official and royal capital; seat of national legislature
	Putrajaya	Administrative centre and seat of national judiciary
Montenegro	Podgorica	Official capital
	Cetinje	Seat of President of Montenegro
Netherlands	Amsterdam	De jure capital under the Constitution of the Netherlands
	The Hague	Seat of government and residence of the royal family
South Africa	Pretoria	Administrative and executive capital
	Cape Town	Legislative capital
	Bloemfontein	Judicial capital
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	Seat of national legislature
	Colombo	Seat of national executive and judicial bodies
Tanzania	Dodoma	Official and legislative capital
	Dar es Salaam	De facto seat of government; seat of judicial bodies
Western Sahara (SADR)	Laayoune	Declared capital
	Tifariti	Temporary capital
Yemen	Sana'a	Internationally recognized capital, controlled by the Houthis
	Aden	Temporary capital, controlled by the pro-Hadi forces.

Other countries

Israel designates Jerusalem as its capital, and its government, parliament and Supreme Court are located in the city. However, as Jerusalem's political status has not reached a final settlement, most countries locate their embassy in Tel Aviv.[1] Tel Aviv and Jerusalem served as de facto joint capitals of Israel from May to December 1948. The State of Palestine also claims Jerusalem as its capital, but the current de facto seat of the internationally recognized Palestinian government is in Ramallah, while the seat of the Hamas-led government is in Gaza City.

In Germany, the highest judiciary organs (Federal Court of Justice and Federal Constitutional Court) are located in Karlsruhe, whereas the nation's political capital is Berlin. Some ministries are still mainly located in Bonn, the former West German capital, which is still called "federal city" (Bundesstadt).

The Honduran constitution statutes that Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela are both capitals in this country. However, all the branches of government are in Tegucigalpa. Comayagüela currently is part of Tegucigalpa Metropolitan Area.

In Peru, the Peruvian Constitution declares Cusco to be the "Historical Capital" (Spanish: Capital Histórica), a symbolic statement, because the national government continues to reside in Lima.

Serbian Republic, a sub-national entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has a constitutional capital of Sarajevo, the same as the capital of the country, by the Dayton Accords; but in fact, their government is located in Banja Luka.

Cetinje is a historical, the traditional, and the secondary capital of Montenegro. The city's status is specifically recognized by the constitution. While the official residence of the President of Montenegro is located in the city, the rest of the government is in Podgorica.

Saint Petersburg, the former capital of the Russian Empire, is unofficially recognized as the Northern Russian capital. In 2009, the Constitutional Court of Russia moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, giving the latter city some of the expected functions of a capital.

The other European countries that have its highest judicial organs outside of the capital are the Czech Republic (Brno instead of Prague) and Estonia (Tartu instead of Tallinn).

While Manila is the official capital of the Philippines, the administrative and political centers of the Philippine government is spread across Metro Manila. The Malacañang Palace, the executive seat of the government and the Supreme Court building as well as the judicial center are located in Manila proper while legislative branch is hosted in two other cities in the metropolis the House of Representatives in Quezon City and the Senate in Pasay.[2]

More than one capital in the past

Many nations that have maintained only one capital at any given time have, nevertheless, over time, conferred capital status on more than one city.

These current 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	Years	Capitals	Details
Republic of China	1937–1945	Nanjing	Capital of Japanese-controlled puppet state
		Chongqing	Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-controlled Republic of China
	1945–1991	Nanjing	Administrative, legislative, and judicial capital (claimed between the 1949 evacuation and the 1992 Consensus)
		Taipei	Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China in Taiwan
Georgia	2012–2018	Tbilisi	Official and administrative capital
		Kutaisi	Seat of parliament
Germany^A	1990–1999	Berlin	Official capital
		Bonn	Seat of government
North Korea	1948–1972	Pyongyang	Seat of administration[3]
		Seoul	Official and constitutional de jure capital[3]
British India	1858–1947	Calcutta (1858–1911)	Winter capital
		Delhi (1911–1947)
		Simla	Summer capital
Laos	1947–1975	Vientiane	Administrative capital
		Luang Prabang	Royal capital
Libya	1951–1969	Tripoli	One of two official capitals of the Kingdom of Libya
		Benghazi
Malawi	1974–1994	Lilongwe	Administrative and judiciary capital
		Zomba	Legislative capital
Norway	1940	Oslo	Official capital
		Hamar	Temporarily one-day capital that seated the parliament[4]
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
		Podgorica	Judicial

^A Bonn had been the de facto capital of West Germany before. With the German reunification Berlin became capital of the united Germany. The government moved to Berlin 9 years later.

Subnational and supernational capitals

At the subnational level, the Canary Islands of Spain have had two co-capitals since 1927, viz. Las Palmas and Santa Cruz. Also, the Azores of Portugal have three co-capitals: Ponta Delgada, Angra do Heroísmo and Horta.

The capital of the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir is Srinagar in summer, and Jammu in winter. Ladakh also has two joint capitals of Kargil and Leh.

At the supernational level, Brussels is informally considered the de facto capital of the European Union. However, this informal title is shared with the cities of Frankfurt, Luxembourg City and Strasbourg.

See also

• List of capitals outside the territories they serve
• List of historical capitals of China
• List of national capitals
• List of former national capitals
• List of purpose-built national capitals
• List of countries whose capital is not their largest city

References

1. "Field Listing::Capital". The World Factbook. Retrieved 2014-04-27.
2. "The Evolution of Manila". Presidential Museum and Librar. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
3. Eberstadt, Nick (1999). The End of North Korea. Washington: American Enterprise Institute. pp. 26, 32. ISBN 978-0-8447-4087-4.
4. Kongens nei - 9. april (Norwegian)