List of countries with multiple capitals

  Countries that currently have multiple capital cities

  Countries that have had multiple capital cities in the past

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.

There are also cases where there is a single legally defined capital, but one or more other cities operate as the seat of some or all parts of 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
Chile	Santiago	Official capital; seat of national administrative and judicial bodies
	Valparaíso	Seat of national legislature
Côte d'Ivoire	Yamoussoukro	Official capital
	Abidjan	De facto seat of government
Georgia	Tbilisi	Official capital and seat of executive government and President
	Kutaisi	Legislative 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 and seat of government
	Cetinje	Old royal capital and site of palace of head of state
Netherlands
	Amsterdam	Official (constitutional) and royal capital
	The Hague	Administrative centre, seat of national legislature, and seat of national judiciary
South Africa	Pretoria	Administrative and executive capital
	Cape Town	Legislative capital
	Bloemfontein	Judicial capital
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	Administrative capital and seat of national legislature
	Colombo	Commercial capital and seat of national executive and judicial bodies
Swaziland	Mbabane	Administrative capital
	Lobamba	Legislative and royal capital
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, occupied by the Houthis
	Aden	Temporary capital

Other countries

Some Kyoto natives also argue that Tokyo and Kyoto are both capitals of Japan at present; see Capital of Japan.

Israel designates Jerusalem as its capital, and seats its government in that 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 serves as de facto capitals of Israel from May to December 1948. The Israeli parliament and the supreme court both are located Jerusalem, which makes it the legislative capital and judicial capitol of Israel. Palestine also claims Jerusalem as their capital; but its 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 declared Cusco to be the "Historical Capital" (in Spanish Capital Histórica), a merely symbolic statement, because the national government continues to reside in Lima.

Republika Srpska, 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 recognised 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.

In South Africa, Bloemfontein is considered the de facto judicial capital, as it houses the Supreme Court of Appeal. The Constitutional Court is housed in Johannesburg, and is a higher appeal court in the case of constitutional matters.

Although there is only one capital, London, of the United Kingdom, there are also three other cities which serve as capitals of their respective nations. Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh are the capital cities of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland respectively, while London is also the capital of England.

Although not considered a country, the European Union has three administrative centres: Brussels (executive and part legislative), Luxembourg (judiciary), and Strasbourg (Parliament).

Although not a sovereign country on its own, the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores has three designated regional capital cities: Ponta Delgada at São Miguel Island (seat of the Autonomous Government); Horta at Faial Island (seat of the Legislative Assembly); and Angra do Heroísmo at Terceira Island (seat of the judiciary and the historical capital of the Azores, in addition to being the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Angra).

The Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous community, has two official capitals, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

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
Afghanistan	1776–1818	Kabul	Summer capital
		Peshawar	Winter capital
China	1937–1945	Nanjing	Capital of puppet state
		Chongqing	Provisional capital of the Kuomintang
	1945–1991	Nanjing	Administrative, legislative, and judicial capital (claimed after 1949)
		Taipei	Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China in Taiwan
Democratic People's Republic of Korea	1948–1972	Pyongyang	Seat of administration
		Seoul	Official and constitutional de jure capital
Germany	1949–1999	(West) Berlin	Official and legislative capital (de jure from 1949-1990)
		Bonn	Seat of administration
British Raj	1858 –1947	Calcutta (1858–1911)	Winter capital
		Delhi (1911–1947 )
		Shimla	Summer capital
Libya	1951–1969	Tripoli	One of two official capitals of Kingdom
		Benghazi	One of two official capitals of Kingdom
Philippines	1948–1976	Quezon City	Official capital
		Manila	De facto seat of government
	1901-1976	Baguio	Summer capital (Still known as summer capital, unpolitically)
Serbia and Montenegro	2003–2006	Belgrade	Administrative and legislative
		Podgorica	Judicial

See also

• List of historical capitals of China
• List of national capitals
• List of historical national capitals
• List of purpose-built capital cities
• List of countries whose capital is not their largest city
• List of national capitals and largest cities by country
• List of largest cities and second largest cities by country

References