Are There Countries with Multiple Capital Cities?

The capital of a country is the center of its administrative machinery.  In case of a monarchy, the capital is usually the city in which the regent resides and holds court. With the evolution of the three branches of administration – legislature, executive, and judiciary – it is not uncommon for different cities to be recognized as the seat of different branches.

A number of countries have multiple capitals. Here is the list of countries with multiple capitals –

Country	Capital	Status	Details
Benin	Porto-Novo	Official Capital	Seat of Legislature
	Cotonou	De facto Capital	Seat of Government
Bolivia	Sucre	Official Capital	Constitutional Capital
	La Paz	De facto Capital	Seat of Government
Chile	Santiago	Official Capital	Seat of Government, Judiciary
	Valparaiso	De facto Capital	Seat of Legislature
Côte d’Ivoire	Yamoussoukro	Official Capital	Constitutional Capital
	Abidjan	De facto Capital	Seat of Government
Georgia	Tbilisi	Official Capital	Seat of Government
	Kutaisi	De facto Capital	Seat of Legislature
Honduras	Tegucigalpa	De facto Capital	Together make up Constitutional Capital
	Comayagüela	Official Capital
Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	Official Capital	Constitutional & Royal Capital
	Putrajaya	De facto Capital	Seat of Government
Montenegro	Podgorica	Official Capital	Seat of Government
	Cetinje	Royal Capital	Palace of Head of State
Netherlands	Amsterdam	Official Capital	Royal & Constitutional Capital
	The Hague	De facto Capital	Seat of Government, Judiciary, Legislature
South Africa	Pretoria	Official Capital	Seat of Government
	Cape Town		Seat of Legislature
	Bloemfontein		Seat of Judiciary
Sri Lanka	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	Official Capital	Seat of Government, Legislature
	Colombo	De facto Capital	Seat of Judiciary, Commerce
Eswatini	Mbabane	De facto Capital	Seat of Government
	Lobamba	Official Capital	Royal & Legislative Capital
Tanzania	Dodoma	Official Capital	Seat of Legislature
	Dar es Salaam	De facto Capital	Seat of Government
Western Sahara (SADR)*	Laayoune	Recognized Capital
	Tifariti	Temporary Capital
Yemen	Sana’a	Recognized Capital
	Aden	Temporary Capital

*disputed territory

A number of countries such as Japan and Russia also claim to have multiple capitals. The Japanese, for example, consider Kyoto as important as Tokyo and the Russians consider St. Petersburg as important as Moscow. These cities are however, not recognized as capital cities.

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