List of countries with multiple capitals

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 government of some or all parts of the national government.

More than one capital at present[]

Country	Capitals	Details
Bolivia	Sucre	Constitutional capital
	La Paz	Executive capital
Eswatini	Mbabane	Administrative capital
	Lobamba	Legislative (Parliament) and royal capital
South Africa	Pretoria	Administrative and executive capital
	Cape Town	Legislative capital (Parliament)
	Bloemfontein	Judicial capital
Malaysia	Putrajaya	Administrative capital
	Kuala Lumpur	Executive capital (Parliament)

More than one capital in the past[]

These 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
Republic of China	1937–1945	Nanjing	Capital of Japanese-controlled puppet state
		Chongqing	Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-controlled Republic of China
	1945–1991	Nanjing	Administrative, legislative, and judicial capital (claimed between the 1949 evacuation and the 1992 Consensus)
		Taipei	Provisional capital of the Kuomintang-ruled Republic of China in Taiwan
British India	1858–1947	Calcutta (1858–1911)	Administrative capital
		Delhi (1911–1947)
		Simla	Summer capital
France	1940-1944	Vichy	de facto administrative capital
		Paris	de jure constitutional capital, also capital for the German military administration
Kingdom of Italy	1943-1944	Brindisi (1943–Feb 1944)	de facto provisional capital
		Salerno (Feb-Jun 1944)
		Rome	de jure capital until 1944 when it got Liberated by the Allies
Italian Social Republic	1943-1944	Salò	de facto capital until 1944 when it became the Primary Capital
		Rome	de jure capital until 1944 when it got Liberated by the Allies
Laos	1947–1975	Vientiane	Administrative capital
		Luang Prabang	Royal capital
Libya	1951–1969	Tripoli	One of two official capitals of the Kingdom of Libya
		Benghazi
Malawi	1974–1994	Lilongwe	Administrative and judiciary capital
		Zomba	Legislative capital
Norway	1940	Oslo	Official capital
		Hamar	Temporarily one-day capital that seated the parliament[1]
Philippines	1948–1976	Quezon City	Official capital
		Manila	De facto seat of government
	1901–1976	Baguio	Summer capital (still known as summer capital, outside of political use)
Serbia and Montenegro	2003–2006	Belgrade	Administrative and legislative
		Podgorica	Judicial

^A Bonn had been the de facto capital of West Germany before. With the German reunification Berlin became capital of the united Germany. The government moved to Berlin 9 years later.

See also[]

• List of capitals outside the territories they serve
• List of historical capitals of China
• List of national capitals
• List of former national capitals
• List of purpose-built national capitals
• List of countries whose capital is not their largest city

References[]