10 Countries Where The Capital Isn’t The City That You’d Expect

What is a capital city? The Collins English Dictionary defines it as ‘the seat of government of a country or other political unit’, though there are a small handful of nations that defy this definition and exercise governance through a settlement other than their official capital. The most notable of these is the Netherlands, where the Senate and House of Representatives meet in The Hague but the capital is Amsterdam.

Other characteristics typically associated with a capital include the presence of major financial, business and legal institutions (including the country’s central bank, stock exchange and high court), cultural establishments such as national museums and international sporting stadiums/events, media industries and sizable populations (usually the most of any city within the country).

In Europe it is common for one city to tick all or most of those boxes. London, for example, is home to the Crown, Parliament, High Court Of Justice, the BBC and more than 50% of international visitors to the UK, to name but a few things.

Elsewhere in the world, it is not always as clear cut. Washington D.C is the capital of the United States, but New York is the largest contributor to its economy and Los Angeles is its cultural epicentre thanks to Hollywood, for instance.

There are quite a few capitals that can seem very insignificant in comparison to other cities, even bordering on the nonsensical from an outsider’s perspective. Here are ten such headscratchers and the interesting reasons behind them.

If pressed to name an Australian city, the majority of people would probably proffer either Sydney or Melbourne. The former is the site of the world-famous Sydney Opera House, was the host of the 2000 Summer Olympics and serves as a global financial centre. The latter is renowned for sport and media, hosting the Australian Open in tennis, Australian Formula One Grand Prix and the gargantuan Melbourne Cricket Ground and the set of Neighbors, amongst other things.

Together with Brisbane, the cities are home to more than 50% of Australia’s population, but neither serve as the capital. That honour goes to Canberra, which has only been in existence for just over a hundred years, having been constructed as a planned city from 1913 onwards. The national government began operating from there in 1927, but outside of governmental functions the city has little to offer non-political visitors and only boasts a population of around 450,000, a figure eclipsed by the likes of Adelaide and Perth.

The reason? After the six Australian self-governing territories (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia) united as a Dominion in 1901, an agreement could not be reached on whether Sydney or Melbourne (both significant cities by that point) should become the new nation’s capital, with each opposing the idea of the other. A compromise was reached, turning a patch of land in the middle of nowhere into the country’s administrative centre and bewildering outsiders to this day.