Countries where the capital is not the largest city? (live in, vs)

[Chava61]

Originally Posted by Turnerbro

Can anyone tell me if I'm missing any?

America, Canada, Brazil, China, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, India, Vietnam, South Africa, U.A.E, Israel(Depending on your view point)

Honorable mention. Germany (Berlin is the largest city but not the largest metro area)

Ecuador as Quito the capital is smaller than Guayaquil which is the commercial/business center of the country.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by ABQConvict

I think it is more common than not, except in very small countries.

Capital cities are often intentionally designated away from the largest city, typically the primary economic center, in order to remove or reduce the influence of that city's chiefs on the broader needs of the country as a whole.

You can see this in most of the sub-national capitals in the US states, as well.

In Australia all of the state capitals are the biggest cities of their respective states. Usually by a very wide margin.


Of Canada's 10 provinces, 5 have the largest city as the capital, and 5 don't.

[bus man]

I know there are some cases where the capital used to be the largest city, but then they built a new city to be the capital. Thus, Belize City used to be the capital of Belize until they built Belmopan. I'm pretty sure that Lagos used to be the capital of Nigeria before Abuja. I also think the same thing happened with Brasilia (Brazil), though I don't know what was the capital before then.

[Gentoo]

In the US, Washington DC isn't even in the top 20 largest cities.

[munna21977]

Metropolitan area, which comprises of suburbs also, will give a better idea of population of Capital City.
Although Scotland is not a country by UN definition, Glasgow is a bigger city then its capital Edinburgh.
Countries like India, Pakistan used to have their capital in biggest cities of those days- Calcutta and Karachi. Shifting to Delhi and Islamabad happened later on.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by munna21977

Metropolitan area, which comprises of suburbs also, will give a better idea of population of Capital City.

Only on these forums LOL

[Milky Way Resident]

Malaysia is an interesting case. Technically speaking, the seat of government is in Putrajaya, while the parliament remains in KL.

[Bettafish]

Beijing and Shanghai are about the same size, in terms of urban area or urban population.
(Although in the 1940s the size of Beijing was much smaller.)

[Turnerbro]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

In the US, Washington DC isn't even in the top 20 largest cities.

In terms of metro area it's top 10.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Turnerbro

In terms of metro area it's top 10.

No where but on these forums is the definition of a city debatable.