Talk:List of national capitals by population/Archive 1

Capital of Israel

Some of you clearly think that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, but it is only according to Jerusalem Law, which is not accepted by the United Nations, who see Tel Aviv-Jaffa as Israel's capital. Therefore, Tel Aviv is the official capital of Israel, according to international law. See this website. Jprulestheworld (talk) 15:49, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

It's not a question of what you "clearly think". You are indulging in original research. The world (the UN, you & I, etc.) does not determine the capitals of countries; the countries themselves do. The entire issue has been extensively discussed here, and consensus reached on wording regarding Jerusalem as capital of Israel. You are welcome to reopen & join that discussion if you wish. Hertz1888 (talk) 16:16, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

This issue is clearly very controversial. I disagree with you, but I will keep your edit to this page and add a wikilink to the talk page you just suggested. However, I will also say that even though the capital of Israel is under dispute and you agree with Israeli law rather than UN law, statistics and articles usually use international law. That's why the population of say, Pakistan, is usually given according to the UN's point of view, even though lots of people disagree over whose land is whose. And I was doing the same with the capital of Israel. Jprulestheworld (talk) 16:58, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi Jprulestheworld! Please take the time to read the various Wikipedia policies and guidelines about original research, point of view, cross-namespace linking, etc. I don't see how the Pakistan example is relevant here, but the reason that UN statistics (e.g. population) are sometimes used for countries is that these countries don't have a functional bureau of statistics. These things should be discussed on a case-by-case basis, because there are always nuances to go over. In the case of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, it has been established by dozens of discussions (I'm sure that at the talk page linked to above doesn't even have half of them). It's not helpful to re-open this issue because of a small dispute, but feel free to do so at Talk:Jerusalem if you really feel strongly about it. -- Ynhockey ^(Talk) 17:09, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

The UN and most nations which have their main embrassy in Tel Aviv do not recognise Jerusalem as even being within the Israeli borders, never mind its capital-so it should not be listed-and does Palestine get included in this list, or Tibet? They are nations too, regardless of their condition of occupation —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gashmak (talk • contribs) 00:40, 23 January 2010 (UTC) :

Jerusalem is the capital of the jewish people and it never change. פארוק (talk) 19:15, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

In my opinion, Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel as it is not fully Israeli territory. But my opinion be damned. This article is written in POV if it does not at least include an asterisk next to Jerusalem. If we don't mention the controversy at all, we are presenting a POV article. The Burma/Myanmar article mentions the naming controversy. The ruling government does not want that. So we are being NPOV there. Why are we not here? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.246.14.41 (talk) 09:21, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

U.S. Commonwealths

Claiming "more independence" for certain U.S. states, and adding their capitals to a list of "national capitals" looks to be unsupported "original research" and an excess of zeal. Please see Commonwealth (United States), particularly the phrase "This designation [Commonwealth], which has no constitutional impact..." Hertz1888 (talk) 18:46, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Now it is supported. It is not original research as I got the information from a book that I have just cited in the reference. (I didn't cite it when I first added Virginia and Massachusetts because I didn't have the book with me at the time and I couldn't remember what page it was on etc.) Puerto Rico, which is also on the list, is a Commonwealth as well and doesn't have any more independence than those states, and that hasn't caused any arguments so far, so if you want me to get rid of Massachusetts and Virginia, how is that different to Puerto Rico and the other American overseas territories? Jprulestheworld (talk) 19:23, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

How is that different? Try starting with full representation (two Senators, etc.) In that regard the 50 states are fully integrated and equal, the territories are not. Does your book say what this greater independence consists of, and whether it is currently valid? Some details would be helpful. Putting Boston and Richmond on a list of "national capitals", though it may amuse some of the locals, looks ridiculous without some stronger evidence to back it up. Massachusetts and Virginia are certainly not dependencies, the category in which you have put them, either. Hertz1888 (talk) 20:02, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

My book The Book of General Ignorance answers the question of "How many states are there in the USA?" on pages 111-112 as "Technically, there are only forty-six", and goes on to say that Virginia, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Pennsylvania are officialy Commonwealths. However it also says it grants them no special constitutional powers, and says that Puerto Rico is an American overseas Commonwealth with its own constitution. So it appears I'm wrong. I thought it'd said that did grant them special constitutional powers. I hadn't really read it for quite a long time, but it was my mistake. I apologize. Jprulestheworld (talk) 18:10, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Is Putrajaya a capital of Malaysia?

My world map marks both Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya as capitals of Malaysia, but the Malaysia Wikipedia article says that just Kuala Lumpur is the capital, although Putrajaya is the primary seat of the Malaysian federal government. I'm confused. I don't know whether to include it in this article. Jprulestheworld01 (talk) 19:59, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

seats of government are not capitals. South Africa did(dont know if it still does) have a different place that was the capital, to where the government was based —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gashmak (talk • contribs) 22:53, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Dublin

The figure for Dublin appears to be listing its Metropolitan population as opposed to that of the actual city (compare with Dublin article). I wonder how many other entries are affected by this issue.FrFintonStack (talk) 01:52, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Metro vs. City

Which should be used because various government policies across the world differently define what a metropolitan area is versus a city population. 216.99.49.176 (talk) 21:56, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Metropolitan population, I think — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ransewiki (talk • contribs) 21:11, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Provinces and States with Separatist Movements

I think if we include some disputed territories, we should include them all, even the ones that are not quite as disputed. For example, I saw Tibet and was curious why Quebec or the Basque Country wasn't up there. I'll check again to see if I missed them, but I doubt that I did. Doc Quintana (talk) 09:32, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Also included should be Bavaria, Britanny, Corsica, Catalonia,Somaliland, Hawaii, Texas, Alaska, Padania and god knows how many other areas with seperatist movements —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gashmak (talk • contribs) 00:43, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi

Panama is in the wrong place and london is not the capital of the uk, it s the capital of englandUbberflubber (talk) 11:09, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

London is the capital of England and the UK by virtue of the fact that the British government and parliament is located in London. It is seperatly the English capital in defference to history.

The London reference should in My view say `UK and England` —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gashmak (talk • contribs) 00:37, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

No The yeetgodboii (talk) 10:59, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

England/United Kingdom

The UK is a union consisting England,Scotland,Wales,Northern Ireland.

Should this list really have the capital of Scotland, given that it is not an independent state but part of a union-when i tried to amend the London entry to state "united Kingdom and England" it got changed back-regarding London, it is capital of those two places(England and the UK)in totally different capacities (unlike the US, Britain doesnt have a special territory in which to place its UK government capital, like DC or the ACT-the capital of one member of the union, is also capital OF that union).

We should either remove references to Edinburgh,as it is not an independent state.

Furthermore,in the same way as Scotland is not an independent state and so should have its inclusion in this list reviewed Guernsey and Jersey are not fully sovereign states as they have no UN membership, delegate their exterior relations and defence to Britain and all the people have British passports-so they shouldnt be on the list either-chosing to allow Scotland and the UK crown dependencies inclusion into the list is akin to putting the capitals of every state of America/Australia/India and every province of Canada, just because some in those respective juristictions might feel a sense of seperatism-Scotland WAS an independent state until it united with England. just as Texas and Hawaii WERE independent until joining the US-but they dont have their capital cities on the list do they? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gashmak (talk • contribs) 01:14, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Edit-given the referneces to territories i can accept the presence of Jersey/Guernsey etc, but Scotland is a big no no-it is unacceptable and frankly smacks of a political agenda to have Scotland as represented amongst other nations onthe list-the Quebecois in Canada have a national identity recognised by the canadian government, as do states in India, and probably more, but they are not included in the list. Unacceptable political implications —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gashmak (talk • contribs) 01:28, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Missing entry

Guys, I am surprised nobody came across this. But I will bring it to the notice of the editors.

First of all, I feel this table is HIGHLY OUTDATED. For example, Tokyo's population is more than twice the given population. Second, there is a country called India whose capital, Delhi, definitely deserves a high place in this list.

I suggest that a major upgrade on this article take place.

Ankitbhatt (talk) 07:25, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Improper Reverse Ranking

I have no idea how to fix this myself, so I am bringing it up here. If you try to order the table from smallest population to largest, it doesn't work correctly. Essentially, it places them in "alphabetic" order, where all of the populations starting with are listing according to the value of each individual digit (i.e 1,200,000 would come BEFORE 1,900, because 2 is smaller than 9). --Mudderrunner (talk) 03:01, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Pristina

According to 2011 census Pristina has only 198.000 inhabitants in metro (municipality) area. According to Montenegrin census of same year, there's 187.000 inhabitants in Podgorica, of whom 156,169 in city proper, making it larger than Port-Louis, Mauritius. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.33.208.23 (talk) 13:07, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

new column

I suggest to be added a new column to this table for date of information. for example Tokyo's population was recorded 13,185,502. It's better be recorded the date of this record. for this example: 2011. .. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fartraveler (talk • contribs) 18:36, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Chisinau

Chisinau is the capital of Republic of Moldova and its largest city. It has a total population of 794,800 inhabitants not as You wrote as 592,000. See: http://www.statistica.md/newsview.php?l=ro&idc=168&id=3719. PLEASE NOTE: according to National legislation in statistics and census, the concept of so called " City proper population" is absent! The Chisinau is seen as municipality (city + metro), due to its special status, You can not differ the city proper and metro, it's not correct to Chisinau. Please change its list position according to population, to 97th place, not 116 as it is now. Thank You. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AbsoluteKirena (talk • contribs) 05:44, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Rank-order column (1,2,3) could be static and separate

See Help:Sorting#Initial alphabetical sort versus initial sort by rank order. See the section about adding a separate, static rank column (1,2,3) next to a table. This makes the table easier to maintain and update. --Timeshifter (talk) 03:52, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

Copenhagen

Howcome Copenhagen is both on number 68 and 128 position? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.184.14.161 (talk) 15:18, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

New Delhi

New Delhi is ranked 143rd with a population of 292,300. This is misleading, I think this is a result of the 'New Delhi Municipal Corporation' having a unique definition, being one of 5 Municipal Organizations that make up 'Delhi Municipal Corporation'. 'New Delhi Municipal' is in charge of a part of the city in which the land is owned mostly by the government (>80%) - NDMC. I'm not sure is New Delhi is defined this way. Help, anyone? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.232.154.22 (talk) 08:06, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Now ranked 159, despite stated population "14,200,004", which looks odd - a bug? — Preceding unsigned comment added by WelchsUK (talk • contribs) 13:18, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

Percentage

Perhaps it could be useful to add another column which would show the percentage of that country's population lives in the capital. Could I add it? WBritten (talk) 19:53, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Belize is a sovereign state

Belize is written in italics in the list suggesting it's a dependency or territory rather than a sovereign country. That is not the case as it has been fully independence since achieving independence from the UK in 1981 (see the country's article page for sources, etc.).--XANIA - ЗAНИA^{Wikipedia talk | Wikibooks talk} 02:48, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

Agreed and changedRobynthehode (talk) 07:51, 14 July 2015 (UTC)

Stockholm

As a Scandinavian I am proud that Stockholm is set up with over 2 million inhabitants, but for us that have traveled a bit in the Scandinavian countries - it can not be true that the capital of Sweden is four times bigger than the one of Denmark. Copenhagen is almost as big as Stockholm - so something has to be wrong here. I guess that the Swedes include a lot of suburbs and the Danes excludes them. --Hovde (talk) 14:28, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

• It is now listed as 925,000 but still ranked No.43. Shouldn't the list be re-cast? Is there a way of Wikipedia ranking automatically so changes in the data don't require people to manually alter the rank?  — MapsMan [ talk | cont ] — 14:59, 28 October 2016 (UTC) 14:59, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Kingston, Norfolk Island

I can't find a source explicitly contradicting this at the moment, so the following is based on personal knowledge. Kingston, which is the "administrative capital" of Norfolk Island by virtue of the Government House being there (and historical reasons) has precisely zero permanent inhabitants. People live in Burnt Pine. The source quoting the population of Kingston is very much wrong. BigHaz - Schreit mich an 21:43, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

New Delhi population?

New Delhi article claims about 250,000 of population. The source given has the same as Delhi of which New Delhi is only one of 11 districts, and in fact, does not mention "New Delhi" at all. One above poster claims the low number is misleading. Actually, the over 16 million figure is misleading, since whole Delhi is not the capital of India. 212.50.203.198 (talk) 18:00, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Also the list is not sorting New Delhi based on entered number, i.e. 14,200,004, a bug? — Preceding unsigned comment added by WelchsUK (talk • contribs) 13:15, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

Possible vandalism reverted

On May 8th 2017, User:Fluffy chicken11 edited the population numbers for several of the countries, the years the data was taken from, as well as blanking the population number for Seoul. I'm not sure if it was intended as vandalism or whether they were trying to be helpful by updating some of the figures. Anyways, I manually reverted the edits as best as I could and I would appreciate it if someone with more experience double checked it for me. Xylospongium (talk) 05:18, 17 June 2017 (UTC)

Inconsistent use of municipal vs. greater/urban/metro population figures

The lead para states that "The population statistics given refer only to the official capital area, and do not include the wider metropolitan/urban district", however, this is not true: eg. for Stockholm the urban figure is used, whereas for eg. Helsinki only the municipal one is. DoubleGrazing (talk) 17:08, 2 February 2018 (UTC)

Editing error I can’t fix because of mobile Wiki editor being very slow (safari)

There’s an error with the flag of Xianjing — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kidvette2004 (talk • contribs) 21:50, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Article is outdated and some percentages are wrong

A lot of the references date back to 2013-2015 and several even older. Some percentages are also wrongly calculated. Someone needs to revise the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.207.12.30 (talk) 10:24, 21 November 2018 (UTC)