The Americas' Capitals: Complete Guide
All 36 capitals of the Americas by region — planned capitals like Brasília and Belmopan, split capitals, and the Caribbean names everyone mixes up.
The Americas' Capitals: A Complete Reference
The Americas stretch from the Arctic to Cape Horn and cover 36 entries in this quiz. Two of them are purpose-built capitals dropped into the middle of nowhere, one country has two capitals depending on which branch of government you mean, and a third of the list is made up of small Caribbean island states whose capitals are the ones people forget.
North America
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Washington, D.C. | Not New York |
| Canada | Ottawa | Not Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver |
| Mexico | Mexico City | — |
Ottawa was chosen in 1857 by Queen Victoria partly as a compromise between English-speaking Toronto and French-speaking Montreal, and partly because it sat far enough from the US border to be defensible. Washington, D.C. is deliberately not part of any state — the "D.C." stands for District of Columbia.
Central America
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Guatemala | Guatemala City | Country and capital share a name |
| Belize | Belmopan | Not Belize City |
| Honduras | Tegucigalpa | — |
| El Salvador | San Salvador | — |
| Nicaragua | Managua | — |
| Costa Rica | San José | — |
| Panama | Panama City | Country and capital share a name |
Belmopan exists because of a hurricane. After Hurricane Hattie devastated low-lying Belize City in 1961, the government built a new capital inland on higher ground and moved there in 1970. With well under 30,000 residents it is one of the smallest national capitals in the world.
South America
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | Brasília | Not Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo |
| Argentina | Buenos Aires | — |
| Colombia | Bogotá | — |
| Peru | Lima | — |
| Venezuela | Caracas | — |
| Chile | Santiago | Valparaíso hosts the National Congress |
| Ecuador | Quito | Not Guayaquil, which is larger |
| Bolivia | Sucre / La Paz | Two capitals — see below |
| Paraguay | Asunción | — |
| Uruguay | Montevideo | — |
| Guyana | Georgetown | — |
| Suriname | Paramaribo | — |
Brasília is the most dramatic planned capital anywhere: built from nothing on the empty central plateau and inaugurated in 1960 to pull development inland from the coast. Its aeroplane-shaped layout by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer's modernist architecture made it a UNESCO World Heritage Site — the youngest city ever granted that status.
Bolivia is the region's split-capital case. Sucre is the constitutional capital and home to the supreme court; La Paz holds the executive and legislative branches and functions as the de facto seat of government. At roughly 3,600 metres, La Paz is also the highest administrative capital in the world, with Quito not far behind at about 2,850 metres. This quiz accepts either answer for Bolivia.
The Caribbean
| Country | Capital | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Cuba | Havana | — |
| Haiti | Port-au-Prince | — |
| Dominican Republic | Santo Domingo | Oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas |
| Jamaica | Kingston | Don't confuse with Kingstown |
| The Bahamas | Nassau | — |
| Trinidad and Tobago | Port of Spain | — |
| Barbados | Bridgetown | — |
| Saint Lucia | Castries | — |
| Grenada | St. George's | — |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Kingstown | Don't confuse with Kingston |
| Antigua and Barbuda | St. John's | — |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | Basseterre | Smallest country in the Americas |
| Dominica | Roseau | Don't confuse with the Dominican Republic |
| Puerto Rico | San Juan | A US territory, not a sovereign state |
The Caribbean produces two of the most reliable mix-ups in the whole quiz. Kingston is Jamaica; Kingstown is Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — one letter apart. And Dominica (capital Roseau) is a completely different country from the Dominican Republic (capital Santo Domingo), which sits on a different island and speaks a different language.
Puerto Rico is included here as a territory rather than a country: it is an unincorporated territory of the United States, so you will not find it in a list of UN member states.
Test Your American Capitals
Use the Americas filter in the quiz to play through only countries in the Americas — with or without flag hints.