Are There Countries With No Capital City?

"Capital" is a bundle of functions — where the head of state lives, where the legislature meets, where the ministries and courts are, where foreign embassies are accredited. A few countries do not concentrate those in a single named city.

Nauru — no official capital

Nauru, a 21 km² island in the Pacific, is the only UN member state with no official capital. Government offices, the parliament and the president's office are located in the district of Yaren, in the south of the island, so Yaren is universally listed as the de facto capital — but no law designates it, and Nauru has no cities, only districts.

Switzerland — no capital in law

The Swiss constitution does not name a capital. Bern was chosen in 1848 as the seat of the federal government and is officially the "federal city" (Bundesstadt). In every practical sense Bern is the capital, and it is what a quiz wants, but Switzerland deliberately avoided elevating any one city, in keeping with its federal, multi-lingual character.

Countries that split the role

• South Africa — Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislature), Bloemfontein (judiciary). No single capital.
• Bolivia — Sucre (constitutional, judiciary), La Paz (executive and legislature).
• Eswatini — Mbabane (administrative), Lobamba (royal and legislative).
• Malaysia — Kuala Lumpur (official, royal, legislative), Putrajaya (administrative and judicial).
• Netherlands — Amsterdam (constitutional), The Hague (government, parliament, court, monarch).
• Sri Lanka — Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative), Colombo (commercial and de facto).

Not the same thing

Some countries recently moved or renamed their capital (Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Tanzania) — they still have one clear capital. Others have a capital that is tiny or obscure (Ngerulmud in Palau, population a few hundred) — again, still a capital. And a few are city-states where the country and the capital are effectively the same place: Singapore, Monaco, Vatican City.