World Capitals Quiz Guide: 50 Capital Cities Every Quizzer Must Know

💡 Note: Lagos is bigger but Abuja has been the capital since 1991 — a very common trick question.

💡 Means "new flower" in Amharic. Home to the African Union headquarters.

💡 Another trick: Dar es Salaam is the largest city, but Dodoma is the official capital since 1974.

💡 South Africa has THREE capitals. Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial). Quiz setters love this one.

💡 Not Casablanca — that is the largest city. Rabat has been the capital since 1912.

💡 Named after the Akan word for "ants" — a reference to the hardworking spirit of the people.

💡 Name comes from Maasai phrase meaning "cool waters." At 1,795 metres elevation, it truly is cooler than most African capitals.

💡 One of the most populous cities in the world and the Arab world's cultural capital. Easy to remember.

💡 Previously called Nur-Sultan (2019–2022) and Astana before that. It was renamed again in 2022. Quiz setters sometimes use the old names — know all three.

💡 Not Yangon (Rangoon). Myanmar moved its capital to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw in 2006.

💡 Not Karachi or Lahore. Islamabad was purpose-built as the capital and inaugurated in 1966.

💡 Colombo is the commercial capital. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital — and one of the longest capital city names in the world.

💡 Technically Tokyo's official status as capital has never been legally defined, but it functions as and is universally recognised as Japan's capital.

💡 One of only two world capitals without traffic lights (the other is Ngerulmud, Palau). Worth remembering for a double question.

💡 One of the world's smallest and most densely populated capital cities, built on a tiny island.

💡 Means "red hero." The world's coldest national capital, with average temperatures below freezing for most of the year.

💡 Often confused with Ljubljana (Slovenia). Slovakia = Bratislava. Slovenia = Ljubljana.

💡 The L in Ljubljana matches the L in Slovenia. A useful memory hook.

💡 Often overlooked in European geography. Minsk is one of the largest cities in Eastern Europe.

💡 Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Not universally recognised, but it has its own capital: Pristina.

💡 Not to be confused with Chisinau spelled differently in older texts. Moldova is the only European country whose capital is sometimes misspelled in quizzes.

💡 Formerly just "Macedonia" until 2019. Its capital Skopje sits on the Vardar river.

💡 Montenegro means "black mountain" in Italian. Podgorica was called Titograd during the Yugoslav era.

💡 Not Rio de Janeiro, not São Paulo. Brasília was purpose-built as the capital and inaugurated on April 21, 1960.

💡 Bolivia has TWO capitals — Sucre (constitutional) and La Paz (seat of government). Another classic trick question.

💡 Not Toronto, not Montreal, not Vancouver. Ottawa was chosen as a compromise between French and English Canada.

💡 Not Sydney, not Melbourne. Canberra was purpose-built as a compromise between the rival cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

💡 Not Guayaquil (which is larger). Quito sits at 2,850 metres — one of the highest capital cities in the world.

💡 Belize City is larger and better known, but Belmopan has been the official capital since 1970 after a hurricane destroyed much of Belize City.