Top 20 Most Populous Capital Cities in the World (2018)

Capital cities are not just administrative centers — they are often the heartbeat of their respective countries. In 2018, the World Bank reported staggering population figures for many capitals, reflecting rapid urbanization and migration trends globally. This article lists the 20 most populous capital cities in the world based on 2018 data and explores the factors driving their growth.

The Top 20 Largest Capital Cities by Population (2018)

1. Tokyo, Japan

• Population: 37,468,302
• Tokyo leads as the world’s most populated capital, a megacity synonymous with innovation, finance, and culture.

2. Delhi, India

• Population: 28,513,682
• Rapid urbanization and economic opportunities have fueled Delhi’s explosive growth.

3. Mexico City, Mexico

• Population: 21,580,827
• As the cultural and economic heart of Mexico, Mexico City draws millions with its vibrant lifestyle.

Other Capitals in the Top 10:

4. Cairo, Egypt: 20,076,002
5. Beijing, China: 19,617,963
6. Dhaka, Bangladesh: 19,578,421
7. Buenos Aires, Argentina: 14,966,530
8. Manila, Philippines: 13,482,468
9. Kinshasa, DRC: 13,171,256
10. Moscow, Russia: 12,409,738

Key Insights on Urban Population Trends

• Asia dominates the list, with cities like Tokyo, Delhi, and Beijing.
• Rapid urbanization in developing countries drives these numbers, especially in Africa and Asia.
• These figures underscore the importance of urban planning, infrastructure development, and sustainable growth.

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Future Outlook

• By 2030, cities like Delhi and Kinshasa are expected to grow significantly.
• Investments in sustainable urban development are crucial to manage such population growth.

Ranking of Capital Cities by Population (2018)

Rank	Country	Capital City	Population of Capital in 2018
1	Japan	Tokyo	37,468,302
2	India	Delhi	28,513,682
3	Mexico	Ciudad de México (Mexico City)	21,580,827
4	Egypt	Al-Qahirah (Cairo)	20,076,002
5	China	Beijing	19,617,963
6	Bangladesh	Dhaka	19,578,421
7	Argentina	Buenos Aires	14,966,530
8	Philippines	Manila	13,482,468
9	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Kinshasa	13,171,256
10	Russian Federation	Moskva (Moscow)	12,409,738
11	France	Paris	10,900,952
12	Colombia	Bogotá	10,574,409
13	Indonesia	Jakarta	10,516,927
14	Peru	Lima	10,390,607
15	Thailand	Krung Thep (Bangkok)	10,156,316
16	Republic of Korea	Seoul	9,963,497
17	United Kingdom	London	9,046,485
18	Iran (Islamic Republic of)	Tehran	8,895,947
19	Angola	Luanda	7,774,200
20	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	7,563,912
21	China, Hong Kong SAR	Hong Kong	7,428,887
22	Saudi Arabia	Ar-Riyadh (Riyadh)	6,906,595
23	Iraq	Baghdad	6,811,955
24	Chile	Santiago	6,680,371
25	Spain	Madrid	6,497,124
26	Singapore	Singapore	5,791,901
27	Sudan	Al-Khartum (Khartoum)	5,534,079
28	United States of America	Washington, D.C.	5,206,593
29	Côte d’Ivoire	Abidjan	4,920,776
30	Turkey	Ankara	4,919,074
31	Brazil	Brasília	4,469,585
32	South Africa	Cape Town	4,430,367
33	Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	4,399,674
34	Kenya	Nairobi	4,385,853
35	Viet Nam	Hà Noi	4,282,738
36	Italy	Roma (Rome)	4,209,710
37	Afghanistan	Kabul	4,011,770
38	Cameroon	Yaoundé	3,655,656
39	Germany	Berlin	3,552,123
40	Paraguay	Asunción	3,222,199
41	Dominican Republic	Santo Domingo	3,172,152
42	Greece	Athínai (Athens)	3,155,600
43	Madagascar	Antananarivo	3,058,387
44	Dem. People’s Republic of Korea	P’yongyang	3,037,862
45	Kuwait	Al Kuwayt (Kuwait City)	2,989,270
46	Uganda	Kampala	2,986,352
47	Senegal	Dakar	2,978,419
48	Ukraine	Kyiv (Kiev)	2,956,706
49	Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)	Caracas	2,934,560
50	Portugal	Lisboa (Lisbon)	2,927,316
51	Nigeria	Abuja	2,918,518
52	Guatemala	Ciudad de Guatemala (Guatemala City)	2,851,104
53	Yemen	Sana’a’	2,779,317
54	China, Taiwan Province of China	Taibei	2,705,791
55	Algeria	El Djazaïr (Algiers)	2,693,542
56	Haiti	Port-au-Prince	2,636,763
57	Burkina Faso	Ouagadougou	2,531,381
58	Zambia	Lusaka	2,523,844
59	Uzbekistan	Tashkent	2,463,969
60	Puerto Rico	San Juan	2,454,337
61	Mali	Bamako	2,446,749
62	Ghana	Accra	2,439,389
63	Lebanon	Bayrut (Beirut)	2,385,271
64	South Africa	Pretoria	2,378,350
65	Syrian Arab Republic	Dimashq (Damascus)	2,319,545
66	Tunisia	Tunis	2,290,777
67	Azerbaijan	Baku	2,285,729
68	Congo	Brazzaville	2,229,693
69	Cuba	La Habana (Havana)	2,136,468
70	Somalia	Muqdisho (Mogadishu)	2,081,624
71	Jordan	Amman	2,064,582
72	Belgium	Bruxelles-Brussel	2,049,510
73	Belarus	Minsk	2,004,672
74	Cambodia	Phnum Pénh (Phnom Penh)	1,952,329
75	Austria	Wien (Vienna)	1,900,547
76	Morocco	Rabat	1,846,661
77	Guinea	Conakry	1,843,121
78	Ecuador	Quito	1,822,397
79	Romania	Bucuresti (Bucharest)	1,821,380
80	Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	La Paz	1,814,087
81	Panama	Ciudad de Panamá (Panama City)	1,783,490
82	Poland	Warszawa (Warsaw)	1,767,798
83	Hungary	Budapest	1,759,497
84	Togo	Lomé	1,745,744
85	Uruguay	Montevideo	1,736,989
86	Sweden	Stockholm	1,582,968
87	Mongolia	Ulaanbaatar	1,520,381
88	Zimbabwe	Harare	1,515,016
89	Oman	Masqat (Muscat)	1,446,563
90	United Arab Emirates	Abu Zaby (Abu Dhabi)	1,419,699
91	Liberia	Monrovia	1,418,300
92	Serbia	Beograd (Belgrade)	1,389,351
93	Canada	Ottawa-Gatineau	1,363,159
94	Honduras	Tegucigalpa	1,363,041
95	Costa Rica	San José	1,357,745
96	Nepal	Kathmandu	1,329,732
97	Chad	N’Djaména	1,322,679
98	Denmark	København (Copenhagen)	1,320,826
99	Czechia	Praha (Prague)	1,291,552
100	Finland	Helsinki	1,279,096
101	Bulgaria	Sofia	1,272,418
102	Niger	Niamey	1,213,781
103	Mauritania	Nouakchott	1,205,414
104	Ireland	Dublin	1,201,426
105	Libya	Tarabulus (Tripoli)	1,157,746
106	Sierra Leone	Freetown	1,135,949
107	Netherlands	Amsterdam	1,131,690
108	El Salvador	San Salvador	1,106,698
109	Mozambique	Maputo	1,101,771
110	Armenia	Yerevan	1,080,324
111	Georgia	Tbilisi	1,077,333
112	Kazakhstan	Astana	1,068,113
113	Pakistan	Islamabad	1,061,412
114	Rwanda	Kigali	1,057,836
115	Nicaragua	Managua	1,047,923
116	Malawi	Lilongwe	1,029,639
117	Norway	Oslo	1,012,225
118	Kyrgyzstan	Bishkek	996,319
119	Israel	Jerusalem	907,062
120	Burundi	Bujumbura	898,968
121	Eritrea	Asmara	895,863
122	Tajikistan	Dushanbe	872,653
123	Central African Republic	Bangui	850,946
124	Gabon	Libreville	813,489
125	Turkmenistan	Ashgabat	810,186
126	Croatia	Zagreb	685,587
127	Benin	Cotonou	685,458
128	Netherlands	s-Gravenhage (The Hague)	685,140
129	Lao People’s Democratic Republic	Vientiane	664,754
130	Latvia	Riga	637,089
131	Qatar	Ad-Dawhah (Doha)	633,401
132	China, Macao SAR	Macao	632,418
133	Sri Lanka	Colombo	599,821
134	Jamaica	Kingston	589,083
135	TFYR Macedonia	Skopje	584,208
136	Bahrain	Al-Manamah (Manama)	564,631
137	Djibouti	Djibouti	561,564
138	Guinea-Bissau	Bissau	558,399
139	South Africa	Bloemfontein	545,875
140	Trinidad and Tobago	Port of Spain	544,417
141	Lithuania	Vilnius	536,055
142	Republic of Moldova	Chişinău	509,707
143	Myanmar	Nay Pyi Taw	500,218
144	Albania	Tiranë (Tirana)	475,577
145	Australia	Canberra	447,692
146	Gambia	Banjul	437,161
147	Estonia	Tallinn	437,027
148	Slovakia	Bratislava	429,920
149	Switzerland	Bern	422,153
150	New Zealand	Wellington	411,346
151	Namibia	Windhoek	404,280
152	South Sudan	Juba	368,914
153	Papua New Guinea	Port Moresby	366,862
154	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sarajevo	342,577
155	Equatorial Guinea	Malabo	296,770
156	Slovenia	Ljubljana	286,491
157	Benin	Porto-Novo	285,328
158	Timor-Leste	Dili	281,135
159	Bahamas	Nassau	279,668
160	Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	Sucre	277,910
161	State of Palestine	Al-Quds[East Jerusalem]	275,086
162	Cyprus	Lefkosia (Nicosia)	269,469
163	Botswana	Gaborone	269,338
164	United Republic of Tanzania	Dodoma	261,645
165	Suriname	Paramaribo	239,457
166	Western Sahara	El Aaiún	232,388
167	Côte d’Ivoire	Yamoussoukro	231,072
168	Iceland	Reykjavík	216,364
169	Malta	Valletta	212,768
170	Bhutan	Thimphu	203,297
171	Lesotho	Maseru	201,851
172	New Caledonia	Nouméa	197,787
173	Fiji	Suva	178,339
174	Montenegro	Podgorica	177,177
175	Maldives	Male	176,851
176	Cabo Verde	Praia	167,504
177	Mauritius	Port Louis	149,365
178	Réunion	Saint-Denis	147,209
179	Guam	Hagåtña	146,905
180	Curaçao	Willemstad	144,037
181	French Polynesia	Papeete	136,005
182	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	119,752
183	Guyana	Georgetown	109,934
184	Sri Lanka	Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte	103,248
185	Barbados	Bridgetown	89,201
186	Solomon Islands	Honiara	81,801
187	Sao Tome and Principe	São Tomé	80,099
188	Martinique	Fort-de-France	79,361
189	Swaziland	Mbabane	68,010
190	Kiribati	Tarawa	64,011
191	Comoros	Moroni	62,351
192	Guadeloupe	Basse-Terre	58,397
193	French Guiana	Cayenne	57,506
194	Vanuatu	Port Vila	52,690
195	United States Virgin Islands	Charlotte Amalie	52,322
196	Northern Mariana Islands	Saipan	50,568
197	American Samoa	Pago Pago	48,526
198	Brunei Darussalam	Bandar Seri Begawan	40,781
199	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	Philipsburg	40,552
200	Grenada	St.George’s	39,297
201	Monaco	Monaco	38,897
202	Samoa	Apia	36,066
203	Cayman Islands	George Town	34,875
204	Gibraltar	Gibraltar	34,733
205	Channel Islands	St. Helier	34,386
206	Marshall Islands	Majuro	30,661
207	Aruba	Oranjestad	29,877
208	Seychelles	Victoria	28,091
209	Isle of Man	Douglas	27,171
210	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Kingstown	26,636
211	Belize	Belmopan	22,964
212	Tonga	Nuku’alofa	22,904
213	Andorra	Andorra la Vella	22,614
214	Saint Lucia	Castries	22,258
215	Faeroe Islands	Tórshavn	20,817
216	Antigua and Barbuda	St. John’s	20,764
217	Greenland	Nuuk (Godthåb)	18,406
218	Channel Islands	St. Peter Port	16,271
219	British Virgin Islands	Road Town	15,137
220	Dominica	Roseau	14,942
221	Saint Kitts and Nevis	Basseterre	14,434
222	Cook Islands	Rarotonga	13,067
223	Palau	Koror	11,410
224	Caribbean Netherlands	Kralendijk	11,313
225	Nauru	Nauru	11,312
226	Bermuda	Hamilton	10,073
227	Tuvalu	Funafuti	7,042
228	Micronesia (Fed. States of)	Palikir	6,996
229	Mayotte	Mamoudzou	6,180
230	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Saint-Pierre	5,723
231	Liechtenstein	Vaduz	5,470
232	Turks and Caicos Islands	Cockburn Town	5,447
233	San Marino	San Marino	4,465
234	Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	Stanley	2,269
235	Anguilla	The Valley	1,402
236	Wallis and Futuna Islands	Matu-Utu	1,025
237	Holy See	Vatican City	801
238	Niue	Alofi	727
239	Saint Helena	Jamestown	603
240	Montserrat	Brades Estate	472

Source:

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs