🏛️ Capitals of the Americas Quiz
Match every country to its capital city.
36 countries in the Americas, and 36 capital cities to match them to. They range from United States, the region's most populous country, to Saint Kitts and Nevis, its least.
Capitals of the Americas Quiz at a glance
- Capitals to learn
- 36
- Subregions covered
- 4
- Most populous country
- United States
- Largest by area
- Canada
Capitals against real people, on the same questions — no account needed. New capitals rooms start every 5 minutes, rotating through regions.
Capitals of the Americas: the traps
This quiz covers 36 countries, from Canada down to Chile. The big mainland countries give up most of their points easily. The trouble is a few famous misfits, and the Caribbean, where small island nations have capitals with confusingly similar names.
The obvious guess is wrong
- United States → Washington, D.C.. Not New York. The location was agreed in 1790 as a compromise between the northern and southern states, and Congress first met there in 1800.
- Canada → Ottawa. Not Toronto or Montreal. Queen Victoria chose it in 1857, and it sits on the river that divides English-speaking Ontario from French-speaking Quebec.
- Brazil → Brasília. Rio de Janeiro was the capital until 1960, when Brasília opened on an empty plateau in the interior: a city planned by Lúcio Costa, with its landmark buildings by Oscar Niemeyer.
- Ecuador → Quito. Guayaquil, on the coast, is the largest city.
- Belize → Belmopan. Built inland after Hurricane Hattie wrecked Belize City in 1961.
- Honduras → Tegucigalpa. San Pedro Sula is the business hub. Hondurans often shorten the capital to “Tegus”.
Bolivia’s two capitals
Sucre is the capital in the constitution. La Paz is where the president and parliament work, and at around 3,600 m it is the highest seat of government in the world. This quiz takes Sucre.
Caribbean near-misses
- Jamaica → Kingston, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines → Kingstown. One letter apart. Kingston is Jamaica’s; the smaller country gets the longer name.
- Dominica → Roseau, Dominican Republic → Santo Domingo. Two different countries. Dominica is a small English-speaking island; the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
- The saints. A rule that holds for every country in this round: a country named after a saint does not have a saint for a capital, and the other way round. Saint Kitts and Nevis has Basseterre, Saint Lucia has Castries and Saint Vincent has Kingstown, while St. George’s belongs to Grenada and Saint John’s to Antigua and Barbuda.
- Trinidad and Tobago → Port of Spain, Haiti → Port-au-Prince. Both are ports, and both names say so: Port of Spain in English, Port-au-Prince in French.
Central America
- Free points. Guatemala City, Panama City and Mexico City all carry their country’s name.
- El Salvador → San Salvador, Costa Rica → San José. El Salvador’s capital repeats its name. The other “San” capital in the region, San José, is Costa Rica’s.
South America
- Paraguay → Asunción, Uruguay → Montevideo. Uruguay is the one on the coast. Montevideo faces Buenos Aires across the Río de la Plata, and is the southernmost capital in the Americas. Paraguay is landlocked, and Asunción sits on the Paraguay River.
- Guyana → Georgetown, Suriname → Paramaribo. Guyana is English-speaking and Suriname Dutch-speaking, and the capitals sound like it.
- Colombia → Bogotá. At about 2,600 m, one of the highest capitals in the world. In the Americas only Quito and Bolivia’s two capitals sit higher.
Capitals of Americas
| Country | Capital |
|---|---|
| Antigua and Barbuda | Saint John's |
| Argentina | Buenos Aires |
| Bahamas | Nassau |
| Barbados | Bridgetown |
| Belize | Belmopan |
| Bolivia | Sucre |
| Brazil | Brasília |
| Canada | Ottawa |
| Chile | Santiago |
| Colombia | Bogotá |
| Costa Rica | San José |
| Cuba | Havana |
| Curaçao | Willemstad |
| Dominica | Roseau |
| Dominican Republic | Santo Domingo |
| Ecuador | Quito |
| El Salvador | San Salvador |
| Grenada | St. George's |
| Guatemala | Guatemala City |
| Guyana | Georgetown |
| Haiti | Port-au-Prince |
| Honduras | Tegucigalpa |
| Jamaica | Kingston |
| Mexico | Mexico City |
| Nicaragua | Managua |
| Panama | Panama City |
| Paraguay | Asunción |
| Peru | Lima |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | Basseterre |
| Saint Lucia | Castries |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Kingstown |
| Suriname | Paramaribo |
| Trinidad and Tobago | Port of Spain |
| United States | Washington, D.C. |
| Uruguay | Montevideo |
| Venezuela | Caracas |
About the Capitals of the Americas quiz
- How many countries are in the the Americas quiz?
- 36 — every country in the Americas with the data this quiz needs. Questions are drawn fresh from that pool each round, so no two rounds repeat.
- Is the capital always the biggest city?
- Not reliably. United States is the most populous country in the Americas, but across the region plenty of capitals are smaller than another city in the same country — which is exactly where this quiz catches people out.
- How is the Americas divided up?
- the Americas spans 4 subregions — Caribbean, South America, Central America, North America.
- Which capital city belongs to the largest country in the Americas?
- Canada is the largest by land area in the Americas, at 9,984,670 km². Its capital is Ottawa.
- Do any countries have more than one capital?
- A few do — some split their legislature, judiciary and executive across different cities. This quiz asks for the primary capital, which is the one listed in the table above.