Did You Know?: Countries With Multiple Capital Cities

A country’s capital is usually the principal city associated with a country's seat of government. Historically, the capital is usually the major economic center of a nation and the center of political power (administrative, legislative and judicial headquarters). However, today, this is not always the case for all capital cities, there are countries with unorthodox capital cities which are not host to the seat of government or even the most populous cities. Thus, a capital city is not necessarily the symbol for the state and its government, one can be it's seat of government and the other it's legal capital - a separation of administrative, legislative, and judicial headquarters between cities. This may be due to pragmatic reasons or situations in that country.

Here's a short list of countries worldwide with multiple capital cities.

Countries of the World with Multiple Capital Cities

Benin
Porto-Novo is the official capital of Benin.
Cotonou is the seat of government.

Bolivia
La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia.
Sucre is the legislative and judicial (constitutional) capital - official capital.

Chile
Santiago is the seat of national administrative and judicial bodies - official capital.
Valparaíso is the seat of national legislature.

Cote d'Ivoire
Yamoussoukro is the official capital.
Abidjan is the De facto seat of government (many government offices and embassies are here).

Israel
Jerusalem is the capital city.
Tel Aviv is where most embassies for foreign countries are located due to the dispute between Israel and the West Bank for Jerusalem - temporary de facto capital .

Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur is the seat of national legislature - official capital.
Putrajaya is the administrative capital and seat of national judiciary.

Montenegro
Podgorica is the official and de facto capital.
Cetinje is an historical capital - "Old royal capital". It however, possesses no national governmental functions.

Netherlands
Amsterdam is the official (constitutional) capital.
The Hague is the (de facto) seat of government and residence of the monarchy - national administrative, legislative, judicial and royal bodies.

Nigeria
Abuja is the official capital.
Lagos is the home of most offices and functions which remain after the capital moved to Abuja. It is also the most populous city.

Philippines
Baguio City is the seat of executive and judiciary during Summer months - summer
Manila is the official and de facto capital - seat of executive and judiciary.
Quezon City is the seat of lower legislature.
Pasay City is the seat of upper legislature.

South Africa
Pretoria is the administrative capital.
Cape Town is the legislative capital.
Bloemfontein is the Judicial capital.

Sri Lanka
Kotte is the administrative capital.
Colombo is the official Commercial capital.

Swaziland
Mbabane is the administrative capital.
Lobamba is the royal and legislative capital.

Tanzania
Dodoma is the official capital.
Dar es Salaam is the De facto capital city - seat of government.