Why state capital usually less populated? (to live, business, cities)

[ProperMan]

Most state's capitals are less populated than largest city in the state.
E.g. NY capital is Albany population 95 000, biggest town is New York City population is 8 000 000.

And this true for most states i checked, why its so?

[anonymous]

Originally Posted by ProperMan

Most state's capitals are less populated than largest city in the state.
E.g. NY capital is Albany population 95 000, biggest town is New York City population is 8 000 000.

And this true for most states i checked, why its so?

Well, the largest cities developed on the water, and the state capital was usually chosen to be close the geographic center of the state. The geographic center of the state is usually not on the water.

[Bydand]

Who can stand to live around that many politicians all the time?

[goozer]

It does seem that way. Not here in Georgia, where Atlanta is the capital, but certainly in many other states. In fact, given the trend, its kind of surprising that Macon isn't the capital of Georgia. Smaller, more central and less cosmopolitan, just like Olympia, WA, Salem, OR, Albany, NY, Dover, DE, and many many others.

[JMT]

I think it's kind of neat that a lot of states have smaller capital cities, I guess a way of keeping Big Business separate from the state government.

The ones that come to my mind, other than those already mentioned:

Tallahassee FL
Springfield IL
Frankfort KY
Lansing MI
Harrisburg PA

But many states do have their largest or 2nd largest city as capitals:

Phoenix AZ
Little Rock AR
Denver CO
Hartford CT
Atlanta GA
Honolulu HI
Baton Rouge LA
Boston MA
Jackson MS
Raleigh NC
Oklahoma City OK
Providence RI
Columbia SC
Nashville TN
Salt Lake City UT
Richmond VA
Charleston WV

[lammius]

Richmond is like the 4th or 5th largest city in VA...

[SharpHawkeye]

I don't have the time at the moment, but it'd be neat if somebody could come up with a listing of the states where the capital is the largest city and states where it is not.

My gut feeling is that it's probably close to 50% for each, so I'm, not sure I agree with the "usually" part.

[DannyBanany]

Pierre, South Dakota is the nation's smallest capital city. It's located in the center and on the banks of the Missouri River, South Dakota's largest body of water. It's kind of a special capital.

[danco]

bad element

[JMT]

Originally Posted by lammius

Richmond is like the 4th or 5th largest city in VA...

But it wasn't when it was first made the state capital.