Capital cities quiz: 22 graded questions with sourced answers

In short

• A capital cities quiz works best as graded rounds: easy, medium and a tricky round for capitals that moved or are shared.
• Below are 22 questions with answers, a UK and Ireland set in each early round, and a tiebreaker with a year for an answer.
• I checked each answer in November 2026 against a constitution or government page where one would open, and against Wikipedia.
• The tricky round is worded to name the catch, so nobody can argue the answer.
• Questions with a disputed answer are listed at the end, with the reason each came out.

A capital cities quiz is a round where each question names a country and asks for its capital, with one answer you can check against that country’s own law or government. It sounds the safest round there is. It is not: capitals move, split and get renamed, and a table of confident travellers will tell you your sheet is wrong.

This set is graded and sourced for that table. Wales and Northern Ireland already sit in pub quiz questions, and Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Turkey, Iceland and Morocco are in that post or in general knowledge, so none repeat here.

What are easy capital cities quiz questions?

Easy capital cities quiz questions name capitals that a teenager has met on a map or on the news. Aim for six or seven right out of seven, so every team scores early and stays in.

World:

1. What is the capital of Italy? Answer: Rome, named in Article 114 of the constitution.
2. What is the capital of Germany? Answer: Berlin, under Article 22 of the Basic Law.
3. What is the capital of Spain? Answer: Madrid, under Article 5.
4. What is the capital of Austria? Answer: Vienna, under Article 5.
5. What is the capital of Poland? Answer: Warsaw, under Article 29.

UK and Ireland:

1. What is the capital of Scotland? Answer: Edinburgh, which replaced Scone in 1437, says VisitScotland.
2. What is the capital of Ireland? Answer: Dublin.

What are medium capital cities quiz questions?

Medium capital cities quiz questions are the ones where the best-known city is the wrong answer. Expect five or six out of eight from a good table.

World:

1. Which city is the capital of Brazil, ahead of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo? Answer: Brasília, under Article 18.
2. Which city is the capital of Ethiopia? Answer: Addis Ababa, under Article 49.
3. Which city is the capital of Argentina? Answer: Buenos Aires, which Article 129 calls the capital of the Nation.
4. Which city replaced Karachi as Pakistan’s capital? Answer: Islamabad, which Article 1 calls the Federal Capital.
5. Which city is the capital of Hungary? Answer: Budapest, under Article F.

UK and Crown Dependencies:

1. What is the capital of the Isle of Man? Answer: Douglas.
2. What is the capital of Jersey? Answer: St Helier, as the States of Jersey’s own island profile lists it.
3. What is the capital of Guernsey? Answer: St Peter Port.

What are tricky capital cities quiz questions?

Tricky capital cities quiz questions are about capitals that moved, were renamed or are shared between cities. Each one below is worded to name the catch, which is what makes the answer safe. Put this round last and say it is hard.

The rule is simple: if two cities could fairly be called the capital, the question must say which sense you mean. “What is the capital of the Netherlands?” starts an argument between Amsterdam and The Hague. “Which Dutch city is the capital, though the government sits in The Hague?” has one answer. Write every tricky question that way, or leave it out.

1. Which city replaced Lagos as Nigeria’s capital in 1991? Answer: Abuja, covered by Section 3 of the constitution. Wikipedia dates the change to 12 December 1991.
2. Yangon is Myanmar’s largest city. Which city is the capital? Answer: Naypyidaw, also written Nay Pyi Taw.
3. As at November 2026, what is the capital of Kazakhstan, a city renamed Nur-Sultan in 2019 and back again in 2022? Answer: Astana.
4. Dar es Salaam is Tanzania’s commercial centre. Which city is declared its capital by law? Answer: Dodoma, under the Dodoma Capital City (Declaration) Act 2018.
5. South Africa has three capitals: Pretoria, Cape Town and which city, home of the Supreme Court of Appeal? Answer: Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.
6. Which city does Bolivia’s constitution name as its capital, though most of the government sits in La Paz? Answer: Sucre, under Article 6.
7. Which Dutch city is the capital, though the government sits in The Hague? Answer: Amsterdam, the capital since the French era of 1795 to 1813, according to the Dutch government.

A capital cities tiebreaker with a year

A good capital cities tiebreaker has a year or a number for an answer, so the nearest guess wins. Ask: in what year was Brasília founded to replace Rio de Janeiro as Brazil’s capital?

The answer is 1960, founded on 21 April. Write it on the sheet first, with a rule that the closest year wins and a tie on distance goes to the earlier answer.

Capital city questions to leave out

Leave out any capital city question whose answer depends on who recognises whom or on the month you ask. Eight came out of this set.

• Israel and Palestine: both claim Jerusalem as their capital. I also dropped Palestine and Taiwan as questions: the dispute is whether to count them.
• Switzerland: the Swiss National Museum says Bern is the seat of government, but the constitution names no capital, not even a federal city.
• Indonesia: Wikipedia, read November 2026, still calls Nusantara the future capital, so the answer is in transition.
• Egypt: government ministries have been moving to the New Capital, which Wikipedia calls the de facto capital.
• Ivory Coast: Yamoussoukro became the legal capital in 1983, yet Abidjan keeps several political functions.
• Sri Lanka: Kotte is the legislative capital and Colombo the economic one.

A wrong answer on the sheet loses a room faster than a hard round does. If you want an argument, make it the tiebreaker.

How should a host run a capitals round?

A host should run a capitals round by deciding the pronunciation, the accepted spellings and the ruling on disputes before the first question is read. Those three things cause most of the trouble, and all three are settled in advance.

Pronunciation first. My awards preparation includes a pronunciation check on every name, and the same habit suits capitals. Wikipedia gives Brasília as brə-ZIL-ee-ə, Abuja as ə-BOO-jə and Naypyidaw as NAYP-yid-aw. Say each one aloud before the night. One client, Matt Gilby, wrote in a Google review of an event I hosted that I was “incredibly well prepared including double checking pronunciations of names”. That is kind of him, and it is a habit any host can copy.

Then the accept-list. Decide that “Naypyidaw” and “Nay Pyi Taw” both score, and that a missing accent on Brasília does not matter. Read the country, pause, then read the question once more. Never read the answer as a trailing hint.

Settling a disputed capital at the table

A disputed capital is settled by the sheet, not by the loudest table. In my view the sheet is the ruling, and the question wording is the evidence. If a table argues that Tanzania’s capital is Dar es Salaam, read the question again: it asks which city the law declares. If a table raises a real fault, take the point to the sheet’s author after the round, not during it. That is opinion, not a rule.

When is it worth hiring a quiz master?

It is worth hiring a quiz master when the quiz sits inside a bigger evening, the room is large or mixed, or your own team want to play rather than run it. For a tidy office quiz, doing it yourself is fine: use the sheet above and say what you will accept.

I’m Kevin Durham, a professional event host, MC and TV presenter, and I run quizzes on software I write myself, with the questions written for the people in the room. I can split a room into two teams and rotate who answers, so more of the room plays than watches. Before any of that I want a proper briefing: the room, the mix of ages and what went flat last time. If you want a quiz master for your quiz night, I will write the rounds and run them as your event host. Call 07596 851647 and tell me about the room.