Astana (pop. 700,000) is the capital of Kazakhstan. The biggest city is Almaty (pop. > 1.4 million).
On a somewhat related note, I always found it interesting that this seems to be the rule rather than the exception with regards to states in the United States: The state capital rarely is the biggest city in the state.
I’m amazed that Liechtenstein has more than one city!
If you count Scotland, Glasgow is larger than Edinburgh, although only 4th in the UK overall (with Edinburgh 7th, which surprised me; I would have guessed it was further down the list).
I was thinking more in the sense of Rome being the “Center” of Italy, regardless of the exact population numbers – historically, in terms of political influence, etc…
Well Italian Industry and culture is based in the North not in Rome.
That’s a relatively recent development in terms of Italian history, though.
That was done by design to keep business and politics separate.
Smart move!
What I find really astonishing is how insignificant most state capitols are. Indianapolis is an exception, but I have been to something like 35 states and very few capitols. I was only once in Harrisburg, the capitol of my home state (or commonwealth). Oh, Richmond is another exception and I’ve been there many times. But I lived in Ill for four years and never went to Springfield. Canada is different, mostly. Although Quebec City is nowhere near the largest city it is prominent on its own. Toronto is the capital of Ontario, Winnipeg the capitol pf Manitoba and so on. Victoria is also an exception, but also historically important. But how many people have ever even heard of Columbia, SC?
Here are all the US states for which the capital IS the largest city:
Arizona (Phoenix)
Arkansas (Little Rock)
Connecticut (Hartford)
Georgia (Atlanta)
Hawaii (Honolulu)
Idaho (Boise)
Indiana (Indianapolis)
Iowa (Des Moines)
Massachusetts (Boston)
Mississippi (Jackson)
Ohio (Columbus – yes, it’s bigger than Cincinnati or Cleveland)
Oklahoma (Oklahoma City)
Rhode Island (Providence)
South Carolina (Columbia – yes, it’s bigger than Charleston)
Utah (Salt Lake City)
West Virgina (Charleston)
Wyoming (Cheyenne)
That makes 17 states, or 34%. Not the majority, but not all that rare, either.
Another statistic: Juneau, Alaska, while smaller in population than Anchorage, encompasses nearly 1,000 more square miles, making it not only the largest state capital in area, but nearly the largest city in America. The largest? Yakutat, Alaska.
But Astana (formerly Akmola, Akmolinsk, and Tselinograd) has only been the capital since 1997.
No, that’s just not true.
Most of the smaller state capitals are where they are for reasons that made sense at the time. Sacramento was made the capital of California when it was the major transportation head for what was, then, most of the people of California; Los Angeleswas a small town. Tallahassee was made capital of Florida when the southern part of the state wasn’t as important as it is now. Albany was chosen as capital of NY because it was further away from the British, with whom the USA was at war when it was picked, and in any event that more central location made more sense in a time of limited transportation options. Raleigh, Columbia, Madison, and many other capitals were chosen simply because they were centrally located. In the case of Raleigh it was ALSO the biggest city in the state at the time.
Each state capital has its own story; it’s silly to assert 33 of them were picked to get away from business.
I recall – from my school classes in Texas, not from being there – that Austin was made the capital of the Republic of Texas because they were trying to encourage westward movement at the time.
Related question:
Is the US the country with the lowest ranking capital in terms of cities by population in that country (this came out weird, I know…)?
Because Washington is something like the 20th largest city in the US while for example Beijing (as noted) is the third largest.
Qui, most countries don’t have anywhere near as many cities as the US, although the amount will vary according to which definition you use so you’d have to start by picking a definition. Many countries use dfferent definitions of what a dictionary would tell you means “city” in the local language: for example, Madrid is a city by most people’s definitions, but it’s not legally a ciudad (in Spain, townships get different legal categories based on history, not size; then you have the geographers’ population-sized definitions, which change by country).
And do you want to compare “incorporated township” only, or metro area? There’s cities in Europe whose metro area involves several countries, leading to some funny definition games.
I’d say our only real U.S.-style capital is Fredericton, which I never hear about in any capacity other than as provincial capital (and for its university). New Brunswick has not one but two larger cities – Saint John and Moncton.
FWIW, Quebec City is the oldest city in the country, and Regina (another one of the second biggests) was a capital (of the NWT) before there was a province there.
City proper or Metropolitan area? Since the DC Metro area is one of the largest in the US.
Whoops, looks like I missed Colorado.