Countries where the capital isn’t the largest city

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A capital city is a settlement specified by the law of a country or subdivision (state, province, county). It functions as the spot of the government’s principal gathering place and offices.

Tokyo is the most populous capital city worldwide, with a total of more than 37.5 million residents.

In most nations around the world, a capital city is usually the largest city in the country. However, in some nations, capital cities are not the largest cities in a nation. In many such nations, the capital cities are comparatively new compared to other cities and had the seat of government shifted to them from other larger cities.

Most surprising for everyday people, non-capital cities in the world are Sydney (Australia), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Istanbul (Turkey), Casablanca (Morocco).

Here is the map of countries where the capital isn’t the largest city.

Countries whose capital isn’t their largest city

Below is the listing of countries whose capital isn’t their largest city.

Country	Capital	Population	Largest city	Population	Ratio
Australia	Canberra	426,704	Sydney	5,312,163	12.6
Belgium	Brussels	179,277	Antwerpen	523,248	2.9
Belize	Belmopan	20,621	Belize City	61,762	3.07
Benin	Porto-Novo	264,320	Cotonou	761,100	3.4
Bolivia	Sucre	259,388	Santa Cruz de la Sierra	1,453,549	7.1
Brazil	Brasнlia	3,039,444	Sгo Paulo	12,252,023	4.25
Burundi	Gitega	41,944	Bujumbura	1,092,859	26.06
Cameroon	Yaoundé	1,430,000	Douala	2,000,000	1.4
Canada	Ottawa	934,243	Toronto	2,731,571	3.08
Cote d'Ivoire	Yamoussoukro	200,659	Abidjan	4,348,000	21.7
Equatorial Guinea	Malabo	187,302	Bata	250,770	1.34
Gambia	Banjul	31,301	Serrekunda	337,000	2.18
India	New Delhi	249,998	Mumbai	12,442,373	49.77
Kazakhstan	Nur-Sultan	743,014	Almaty	1,450,095	1.95
Liechtenstein	Vaduz	5,109	Schaan	5,806	1.14
Malta	Valletta	5,827	St. Paul's Bay	29,097	6.62
Micronesia	Palikir	5,000	Weno	13,000	1.4
Morocco	Rabat	627,000	Casablanca	4,150,000	6.62
Myanmar	Naypyidaw	925,000	Yangon	4,346,000	4.7
NewZealand	Wellington	215,900	Auckland	1,463,000	6.78
Nigeria	Abuja	778,567	Lagos	7,937,932	10.2
Pakistan	Islamabad	1,014,825	Karachi	14,910,352	14.69
Palau	Ngerulmud	271	Koror	11,200	41.32
People's RepublicofChina	Beijing	22,000,000	Shanghai	30,484,300	1.39
Philippines	Manila	1,780,148	Quezon City	2,936,116	1.67
SanMarino	San Marino	4,211	Serravalle	10,601	2.52
SouthAfrica	Pretoria	2,345,908	Johannesburg	3,888,180	1.66
SriLanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	115,826	Colombo	642,163	5.54
Switzerland	Bern	138,041	Zьrich	397,698	2.88
Taiwan	Taipei	2,650,968	New Taipei	3,916,451	1.48
Tanzania	Dodoma	324,347	Dar es Salaam	2,497,940	7.7
Trinidad and Tobago	Port of Spain	49,000	Chaguanas	67,400	1.37
Turkey	Ankara	5,150,072	Istanbul	14,377,018	3.4
United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi	896,751	Dubai	2,262,000	2.52
United States	Washington, D.C.	705,749	New York City	8,398,748	12.72
Vietnam	Hanoi	6,500,000	Ho Chi Minh City	7,123,340	1.1

The world map of the countries below shows the number of cities whose population is larger than a capital city.

India holds the record among all countries by the number of cities with a more largest population than the capital city. There are 184 Indian cities with more people than the capital, New Delhi. Malta has 26 such cities, and the United States has 19.

Finally, below are the maps illustrating the percentage of the population who live in each country’s capital and largest city.

Percentage of population living in a capital city

Percentage of the population who live in each country’s largest city

Top 30 countries where much of the population lives in one city

Kuwait has 72,5%, the most significant percentage in the world if we exclude city-states. About 3,05 million people are living in Kuwait city out of a total population of 4,2 million.

Rank	City	Country	City’s population	Country’s population	Percentage
1	Kuwait City	Kuwait	3,052,000	4,207,000	72.5
2	Djibouti	Djibouti	569,000	974,000	58.4
3	Montevideo	Uruguay	1,745,000	3,462,000	50.4
4	Ulaanbaatar	Mongolia	1,553,000	3,225,000	48.2
5	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	4,097,000	8,519,000	48.1
6	Asunción	Paraguay	3,279,000	7,045,000	46.5
7	Panama City	Panama	1,822,000	4,246,000	42.9
8	Brazzaville	Congo	2,308,000	5,381,000	42.9
9	Port of Spain	Trinidad and Tobago	544,000	1,395,000	39
10	Libreville	Gabon	824,000	2,173,000	37.9
11	Yerevan	Armenia	1,083,000	2,958,000	36.6
12	Manama	Bahrain	600,000	1,641,000	36.6
13	Santiago	Chili	6,724,000	18,952,000	35.5
14	Beirut	Lebanon	2,404,000	6,856,000	35.1
15	Buenos Aires	Argentina	15,057,000	44,781,000	33.6
16	Tallinn	Estonia	441,000	1,326,000	33.3
17	Riga	Latvia	634,000	1,907,000	33.3
18	Auckland	New Zealand	1,582,000	4,783,000	33.1
19	Lima	Peru	10,555,000	32,510,000	32.5
20	Santo Domingo	Dominican Republic	3,245,000	10,739,000	30.2
21	Muscat	Oman	1,502,000	4,975,000	30.2
22	Bissau	Guinea-Bissau	579,000	1,921,000	30.1
23	Athens	Greece	3,154,000	10,473,000	30.1
24	Monrovia	Liberia	1,467,000	4,937,000	29.7
25	Tokyo	Japan	37,435,000	126,860,000	29.5
26	Bata	Equatorial Guinea-Bissau	395,000	1,356,000	29.1
27	Dubai	United Arab Emirates	2,833,000	9,771,000	29
28	Lisbon	Portugal	2,942,000	10,226,000	28.8
29	Skopje	Macedonia	590,000	2,083,000	28.3
30	Nouakchott	Mauritania	1,259,000	4,526,000	27.8