Why 33 US state capitals are not the biggest city in their state

In 33 of the 50 US states the capital is not the largest city. That is a majority, and the pattern is not random. Founders and 19th-century legislators pushed capitals away from crowded ports and toward interior towns for reasons that felt urgent at the time: fear of naval bombardment, distrust of urban political machines, the pull of a river junction near new farmland, or simply the need for a compromise site between rival cities. The 17 states where the capital is also the biggest city are the exceptions.

The 17 states where the capital IS the largest city

Start with the exceptions. In these 17 states the capital and the largest city are the same:

• Arizona, Phoenix (about 1.7 million residents)
• Arkansas, Little Rock
• Colorado, Denver
• Georgia, Atlanta
• Hawaii, Honolulu
• Idaho, Boise
• Indiana, Indianapolis
• Iowa, Des Moines
• Massachusetts, Boston
• Mississippi, Jackson
• Ohio, Columbus
• Oklahoma, Oklahoma City
• Rhode Island, Providence
• Tennessee, Nashville
• Utah, Salt Lake City
• West Virginia, Charleston
• Wyoming, Cheyenne

On 2020 census figures the count is exactly 17.

The 33 states where the capital is NOT the biggest city

Here are the 33 mismatches, with the capital and the largest city side by side:

State	Capital	Largest city
Alabama	Montgomery	Huntsville
Alaska	Juneau	Anchorage
California	Sacramento	Los Angeles
Connecticut	Hartford	Bridgeport
Delaware	Dover	Wilmington
Florida	Tallahassee	Jacksonville
Illinois	Springfield	Chicago
Kansas	Topeka	Wichita
Kentucky	Frankfort	Louisville
Louisiana	Baton Rouge	New Orleans
Maine	Augusta	Portland
Maryland	Annapolis	Baltimore
Michigan	Lansing	Detroit
Minnesota	Saint Paul	Minneapolis
Missouri	Jefferson City	Kansas City
Montana	Helena	Billings
Nebraska	Lincoln	Omaha
Nevada	Carson City	Las Vegas
New Hampshire	Concord	Manchester
New Jersey	Trenton	Newark
New Mexico	Santa Fe	Albuquerque
New York	Albany	New York City
North Carolina	Raleigh	Charlotte
North Dakota	Bismarck	Fargo
Oregon	Salem	Portland
Pennsylvania	Harrisburg	Philadelphia
South Carolina	Columbia	Charleston
South Dakota	Pierre	Sioux Falls
Texas	Austin	Houston
Vermont	Montpelier	Burlington
Virginia	Richmond	Virginia Beach
Washington	Olympia	Seattle
Wisconsin	Madison	Milwaukee

Nashville has overtaken Memphis as Tennessee's biggest city, and by the 2020 census Charleston had overtaken Columbia in South Carolina, so Tennessee now sits among the 17 and South Carolina among the 33.

Why the founders picked small towns over big ports

The 13 original colonies gave a preview of the pattern. In 1797 New York moved its capital from New York City to Albany. Massachusetts kept Boston, but many other coastal states looked inland. Three reasons come up again and again.

1. Fear of the British Navy

After the Revolution and the War of 1812, a capital on the coast felt exposed. Washington, D.C. itself was burned in 1814. States responded by placing their seats of government away from open water. Trenton, Annapolis and Dover are all near the coast, but tucked inland along rivers. Harrisburg replaced Lancaster (capital since Philadelphia gave up the role in 1799) in Pennsylvania in 1812, only months before British forces returned to the Chesapeake.

2. Rural distrust of urban politics

Nineteenth-century state legislatures were dominated by rural districts. Farmers and small-town merchants did not want their laws written inside cities they saw as corrupt. Springfield, Illinois replaced Vandalia partly because a young lawyer named Abraham Lincoln lobbied for it in 1837. Jefferson City, Missouri was placed at the geographic center of the state rather than at St. Louis. Tallahassee was picked in 1824 because it sat exactly halfway between the two existing regional capitals of Pensacola and St. Augustine.

3. Compromise between rival cities

Where two cities were already fighting for economic dominance, legislators often picked a third neutral site. Lansing was a swampy wilderness when Michigan named it capital in 1847, chosen to end the tug-of-war between Detroit and the west of the state. Frankfort, Kentucky beat both Louisville and Lexington in 1792. Raleigh, North Carolina was laid out from scratch in 1792 as a compromise capital.

The most extreme mismatches

Some pairings are lopsided enough to be startling. Ranked by the ratio between the population of the largest city and that of the capital:

• New York: New York City had 8,804,190 residents in the 2020 census, Albany 99,224. A ratio of about 89 to 1.
• Illinois: Chicago at 2.7 million, Springfield at 114,000. A ratio of 24 to 1.
• Nevada: Las Vegas at 660,000, Carson City at 60,000. A ratio of 11 to 1.
• California: Los Angeles at 3.8 million, Sacramento at 525,000. A ratio of 7 to 1, but Los Angeles is 380 miles from Sacramento.
• Vermont: Burlington at 45,000, Montpelier at 8,000. A ratio of about 6 to 1. Small numbers, but Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the country.
• Florida: Jacksonville at 970,000, Tallahassee at 200,000. A ratio of about 5 to 1. Add the metro areas and Miami dwarfs both.

Capitals that used to be somewhere else

More than 30 states have moved their capital at least once. A few of the more interesting moves:

• New York: New York City (1784-1797), then Albany.
• Pennsylvania: Philadelphia (1683-1799), then Lancaster (1799-1812), then Harrisburg.
• Georgia: Savannah, then Augusta, then Louisville, then Milledgeville, and finally Atlanta in 1868.
• California: San Jose (1850), Vallejo, Benicia, then Sacramento permanently in 1854.
• Alabama: Cahaba, then Tuscaloosa, then Montgomery.
• Ohio: Chillicothe, Zanesville, back to Chillicothe, then Columbus in 1816.

Every relocation reflected some mix of the same three pressures: security, geography, and politics.

Federal capitals also moved

The pattern is not just at the state level. The US national capital moved eight times before settling on Washington, D.C. in 1800. Philadelphia hosted the Continental Congress for most of the Revolution and the federal government from 1790 to 1800. Before that, New York City served briefly from 1785 to 1790, and towns as small as Trenton, Annapolis, York and Princeton held Congress during the Revolution. The Constitution had to be argued into place before the country could agree on a permanent seat.

Frequently asked questions

Is Washington, D.C. a state capital?

No. Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States, not of a state. It is a federal district that is not part of any state. Maryland ceded the land in 1788, and the Residence Act of 1790 chose the site.

Which state capital is the highest above sea level?

Santa Fe, New Mexico, at 7,199 feet (2,194 m). Cheyenne, Wyoming is second at about 6,062 feet. Denver, Colorado is famously the "Mile High City" at 5,280 feet.

Which state capital is the youngest?

Oklahoma City, capital of Oklahoma since 1910, is the most recent choice of a capital. Juneau has been the capital of Alaska since 1906, in territorial days, and Honolulu has been a capital since 1845, under the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Why is Trenton, New Jersey the capital instead of Newark?

Trenton became capital in 1790 as a compromise between the northern and southern halves of the colony. It also sits at the head of navigation on the Delaware River, useful in an era before railroads.

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