Ways to use this list
- Reverse quiz: the reel shows a capital and players race to name its country, which gets tricky with Ngerulmud, Moroni or Thimphu.
- Continent rounds: press Europe for round one and Africa for round two, and keep score on the board.
- Test prep for US students: press US state capitals and quiz each other on all 50 until nobody misses one.
- Map pinning: each spin, a student finds the capital on a wall map and adds a sticky note; count how many fit in ten minutes.
- Family quiz night: set Winners to 5 and give each team five capitals to match with their countries.
Press Pull the lever, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a wheel, duck race, hat and more.
The full list (195 entries)
- Kabul – Afghanistan
- Tirana – Albania
- Algiers – Algeria
- Andorra la Vella – Andorra
- Luanda – Angola
- Saint John's – Antigua and Barbuda
- Buenos Aires – Argentina
- Yerevan – Armenia
- Canberra – Australia
- Vienna – Austria
- Baku – Azerbaijan
- Nassau – Bahamas
- Manama – Bahrain
- Dhaka – Bangladesh
- Bridgetown – Barbados
- Minsk – Belarus
- Brussels – Belgium
- Belmopan – Belize
- Porto-Novo – Benin
- Thimphu – Bhutan
- Sucre – Bolivia
- Sarajevo – Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Gaborone – Botswana
- Brasília – Brazil
- Bandar Seri Begawan – Brunei
- Sofia – Bulgaria
- Ouagadougou – Burkina Faso
- Gitega – Burundi
- Praia – Cabo Verde
- Phnom Penh – Cambodia
- Yaoundé – Cameroon
- Ottawa – Canada
- Bangui – Central African Republic
- N'Djamena – Chad
- Santiago – Chile
- Beijing – China
- Bogotá – Colombia
- Moroni – Comoros
- Brazzaville – Congo
- San José – Costa Rica
- Yamoussoukro – Côte d'Ivoire
- Zagreb – Croatia
- Havana – Cuba
- Nicosia – Cyprus
- Prague – Czechia
- Kinshasa – Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Copenhagen – Denmark
- Djibouti – Djibouti
- Roseau – Dominica
- Santo Domingo – Dominican Republic
- Quito – Ecuador
- Cairo – Egypt
- San Salvador – El Salvador
- Ciudad de la Paz – Equatorial Guinea
- Asmara – Eritrea
- Tallinn – Estonia
- Mbabane – Eswatini
- Addis Ababa – Ethiopia
- Suva – Fiji
- Helsinki – Finland
- Paris – France
- Libreville – Gabon
- Banjul – Gambia
- Tbilisi – Georgia
- Berlin – Germany
- Accra – Ghana
- Athens – Greece
- Saint George's – Grenada
- Guatemala City – Guatemala
- Conakry – Guinea
- Bissau – Guinea-Bissau
- Georgetown – Guyana
- Port-au-Prince – Haiti
- Tegucigalpa – Honduras
- Budapest – Hungary
- Reykjavík – Iceland
- New Delhi – India
- Jakarta – Indonesia
- Tehran – Iran
- Baghdad – Iraq
- Dublin – Ireland
- Jerusalem – Israel
- Rome – Italy
- Kingston – Jamaica
- Tokyo – Japan
- Amman – Jordan
- Astana – Kazakhstan
- Nairobi – Kenya
- South Tarawa – Kiribati
- Kuwait City – Kuwait
- Bishkek – Kyrgyzstan
- Vientiane – Laos
- Riga – Latvia
- Beirut – Lebanon
- Maseru – Lesotho
- Monrovia – Liberia
- Tripoli – Libya
- Vaduz – Liechtenstein
- Vilnius – Lithuania
- Luxembourg City – Luxembourg
- Antananarivo – Madagascar
- Lilongwe – Malawi
- Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia
- Malé – Maldives
- Bamako – Mali
- Valletta – Malta
- Majuro – Marshall Islands
- Nouakchott – Mauritania
- Port Louis – Mauritius
- Mexico City – Mexico
- Palikir – Micronesia
- Chișinău – Moldova
- Monaco – Monaco
- Ulaanbaatar – Mongolia
- Podgorica – Montenegro
- Rabat – Morocco
- Maputo – Mozambique
- Naypyidaw – Myanmar
- Windhoek – Namibia
- Yaren – Nauru
- Kathmandu – Nepal
- Amsterdam – Netherlands
- Wellington – New Zealand
- Managua – Nicaragua
- Niamey – Niger
- Abuja – Nigeria
- Pyongyang – North Korea
- Skopje – North Macedonia
- Oslo – Norway
- Muscat – Oman
- Islamabad – Pakistan
- Ngerulmud – Palau
- Ramallah – Palestine
- Panama City – Panama
- Port Moresby – Papua New Guinea
- Asunción – Paraguay
- Lima – Peru
- Manila – Philippines
- Warsaw – Poland
- Lisbon – Portugal
- Doha – Qatar
- Bucharest – Romania
- Moscow – Russia
- Kigali – Rwanda
- Basseterre – Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Castries – Saint Lucia
- Kingstown – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Apia – Samoa
- San Marino – San Marino
- São Tomé – São Tomé and Príncipe
- Riyadh – Saudi Arabia
- Dakar – Senegal
- Belgrade – Serbia
- Victoria – Seychelles
- Freetown – Sierra Leone
- Singapore – Singapore
- Bratislava – Slovakia
- Ljubljana – Slovenia
- Honiara – Solomon Islands
- Mogadishu – Somalia
- Pretoria – South Africa
- Seoul – South Korea
- Juba – South Sudan
- Madrid – Spain
- Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte – Sri Lanka
- Khartoum – Sudan
- Paramaribo – Suriname
- Stockholm – Sweden
- Bern – Switzerland
- Damascus – Syria
- Dushanbe – Tajikistan
- Dodoma – Tanzania
- Bangkok – Thailand
- Dili – Timor-Leste
- Lomé – Togo
- Nuku'alofa – Tonga
- Port of Spain – Trinidad and Tobago
- Tunis – Tunisia
- Ankara – Türkiye
- Ashgabat – Turkmenistan
- Funafuti – Tuvalu
- Kampala – Uganda
- Kyiv – Ukraine
- Abu Dhabi – United Arab Emirates
- London – United Kingdom
- Washington, D.C. – United States
- Montevideo – Uruguay
- Tashkent – Uzbekistan
- Port Vila – Vanuatu
- Vatican City – Vatican City
- Caracas – Venezuela
- Hanoi – Vietnam
- Sanaa – Yemen
- Lusaka – Zambia
- Harare – Zimbabwe
Questions people ask
Which countries have more than one capital?
South Africa has three: Pretoria (government), Cape Town (parliament) and Bloemfontein (courts); we use Pretoria. Bolivia's constitution names Sucre, while its government sits in La Paz; we use Sucre. We also use Amsterdam, not The Hague, for the Netherlands; Kuala Lumpur, not Putrajaya, for Malaysia; Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, not Colombo, for Sri Lanka; Porto-Novo, not Cotonou, for Benin; Yamoussoukro, not Abidjan, for Côte d'Ivoire; and Mbabane, not Lobamba, for Eswatini.
Have any capital cities changed recently?
Yes. Equatorial Guinea named Ciudad de la Paz its capital in January 2026 in place of Malabo, though the move is still under way. Burundi made Gitega its political capital in 2019, and Kazakhstan's capital took back the name Astana in 2022 after three years as Nur-Sultan. Indonesia is building a new capital, Nusantara, but Jakarta is still the capital for now.
How does the list handle Jerusalem and other unusual cases?
Jerusalem's status is disputed: Israel names it as its capital and Palestine names East Jerusalem as its own. We list Jerusalem for Israel and Ramallah, where the Palestinian government is based, for Palestine. Nauru has no official capital, so we use Yaren, where its government offices are, and Switzerland calls Bern its "federal city" rather than its capital.
Is there a US state capitals version?
Yes: press US state capitals for all 50, from Montgomery to Cheyenne. To see which state each one belongs to, open the random state generator, which lists every state with its capital.