Capital cities wheel

Which capitals are on the wheel?

There is one capital for each of the 195 countries on our country wheel: the 193 UN member states plus Vatican City and Palestine. Every slice is written “City, Country”, so the answer is always on the result card and nobody has to look anything up mid-game.

City names keep their usual accents, such as Bogotá, Reykjavík and Chișinău, because that is how they appear in atlases. Players do not need to spell them that way; accept any recognisable answer.

Which countries have more than one capital?

Several countries split the job between cities, and quiz books disagree about which one to print. We used the capital each country names in its own constitution or law, and these are the cases worth knowing before you argue about a point:

• Bolivia: Sucre is the constitutional capital; La Paz is the seat of government.
• South Africa: Pretoria (executive) is listed; Cape Town is the legislative capital and Bloemfontein the judicial one.
• Netherlands: Amsterdam is the capital; the government sits in The Hague.
• Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Tanzania, Burundi: Yamoussoukro, Porto-Novo, Dodoma and Gitega are the official capitals, while Abidjan, Cotonou, Dar es Salaam and Bujumbura are the larger economic centres.
• Malaysia and Sri Lanka: Kuala Lumpur and Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte are the official capitals; Putrajaya and Colombo host much of the day-to-day government.
• Eswatini: Mbabane is the administrative capital; Lobamba is the royal and legislative capital.

Recently changed and disputed capitals

Equatorial Guinea officially moved its capital from Malabo to Ciudad de la Paz in January 2026, and the wheel uses the new capital. Indonesia is building Nusantara, but Jakarta remains the legal capital until a presidential decree transfers the status, so Jakarta is listed. Nauru has no official capital; Yaren, the district that holds the government offices, is the usual answer.

Some capitals are politically disputed. Israel designates Jerusalem, while many countries keep their embassies in Tel Aviv. Palestine designates East Jerusalem, and its administration works from Ramallah. In Yemen, Sanaa is the constitutional capital, although the internationally recognised government has operated from Aden. Sudan's government has worked partly from Port Sudan during the war, but Khartoum remains the capital. The wheel shows the designated capital in each case; if your syllabus teaches a different answer, change that slice in Edit as text.

Making the quiz easier or harder

For beginners, cut the list down to one region in Edit as text, or keep only countries whose capital shares their name, such as Mexico City, Kuwait City and Guatemala City, as a warm-up. For experts, keep the full 195 and play “capital or not?”: the quizmaster sometimes swaps in the largest city (Sydney for Canberra, Istanbul for Ankara) and players must call the bluff.

Team play works well here. Split the room with the team picker wheel, then alternate turns. The classroom games guide has scoring ideas that keep everyone involved, and the randomness guide explains why no capital is favoured.

About this list

Capitals were checked in September 2026 against each state's own designation. Capitals do change, as Equatorial Guinea showed this year, so if you spot one that has moved, you can correct it on your copy straight away.