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Top 10 Most Populous U.S. State Capitals

Can you name the 10 state capitals that have the highest population?
By city proper population, 2021
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: May 28, 2022
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First submittedMarch 30, 2017
Times taken47,484
Average score70.0%
Rating4.47
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Population
City
1,624,569
Phoenix
964,177
Austin
906,528
Columbus
882,039
Indianapolis
711,463
Denver
Population
City
654,776
Boston
687,725
Oklahoma City
678,851
Nashville
525,041
Sacramento
496,461
Atlanta
36 Comments
+19
Level 76
Mar 31, 2017
Is there be an urban-extent version of this quiz coming? The problem with "city proper" quizzes is that you have no idea which cities some clown of a bureaucrat has drawn a red line through its middle and decreed that one side or the other isn't a proper part of the city. (Which seems to have happened here with Honolulu and Salt Lake City at least).
+14
Level 86
Mar 31, 2017
I don't think some bureaucratic clown decided to divide Salt Lake City in two. I think people decided to live in suburbs, which grew until they filled the valley surrounding the city, and the suburbs had no desire to be annexed by the city.
+3
Level 74
Feb 22, 2018
Exactly. I barely comprehend the complaint. Take Boston for instance. The "city proper" is a political unit. Metropolitan Boston includes dozens of other political units, cities and towns and villages, that are in close proximity to the city proper. The designation of what is and is not "Metropolitan Boston" is what is arbitrary and changeable (I mean people regularly commute from as far away as Providence, RI and Manchester, NH), not the designation of what is Boston proper, which has very clear borders and a definite population.
+2
Level 36
Apr 30, 2019
You're jumping to a lot of conclusions. Usually when you have city propers that really small relative to their metropolitan areas it's because a bunch of settlements were made in close proximity to one another, and as the population of the area grew the gaps between towns closed until they eventually began to run together as one city.
+3
Level 80
Jun 22, 2020
Would St Paul count then?
+4
Level 66
Mar 31, 2017
This could really use a bit more time. At least 2 minutes, maybe 3. Some of us can't remember capitals quite as fast as states.
+2
Level 63
Mar 31, 2017
Agreed
+4
Level ∞
Apr 1, 2017
Increased the time by 30 seconds
+1
Level 57
Jul 26, 2022
Disagree, you either know them or you don't. It's about 30 seconds too long.
+4
Level 58
Mar 31, 2017
Jeez, man. What is the need for speed??
+2
Level 83
Mar 31, 2017
Atlanta is a lot smaller than I thought.
+4
Level 71
Jun 9, 2017
This is city proper, not metro or urban agglomeration.
+3
Level 43
Jan 21, 2019
Atlanta is home to 6.5 million people. The reason they aren't included in this is because many of them live in suburbs, which aren't included in this list.
+3
Level 69
Jun 22, 2020
Wow! That is a huge metropolitan area-city population ratio.
+1
Level 47
Jul 5, 2017
Why not do the opposite and have a 10 Least Populous U.S. State Capitals quiz?
+3
Level 76
Aug 7, 2017
Here it is. There's also an easier version that comes with a map.
+4
Level 56
Aug 7, 2017
I don't get you Americans! Why are so few state capitals the largest city in the state?
+12
Level 91
Aug 7, 2017
For the most part sites were chosen to move it towards the center of the state. Most large cities are on the ocean or on large rivers which also happen to be the borders of a lot of the states and not in the center of the state. Also a lot of times smaller cities were chosen on purpose to limit the extent of large cities and powerful interests.
+2
Level 70
Aug 7, 2017
I wondered the exact same thing- so I made a quiz on the topic!
+2
Level 63
Aug 7, 2017
That's always puzzled me-and this is coming from an American!
+1
Level 59
Aug 7, 2017
5 out of 10, not bad for me because I'm from India.
+2
Level 63
Aug 7, 2017
I must say, this was harder than I thought it would be.
+2
Level 65
Aug 9, 2017
Still not enough time...
+1
Level 23
Dec 9, 2018
I thought this was how big the city is, I guess I read wrong
+4
Level 74
Jun 22, 2020
Can you accept Oklahoma for Oklahoma City. This is almost always the case for every other quiz
+2
Level 73
Jun 22, 2020
Don't think so. The only usual accepted type-in's are Oklahoma City and OKC. Like Kansas, simply Oklahoma is more synonymous with the state as opposed to the city
+2
Level 74
Jun 22, 2020
And in the case of Kansas, the original and larger city is in the state of Missouri. It was named for the river.
+1
Level 58
Jul 25, 2022
I've used "Oklahoma" for Oklahoma City in other quizzes and it was accepted, just as "Mexico" is for "Mexico City", etc. In quizzes that are specifically asking for city names, this kind of shortcut should be accepted. When it didn't accept Oklahoma, I assumed I was wrong and moved on.
+1
Level ∞
Jul 25, 2022
@Zongora. "Oklahoma" has never been accepted for the city on featured quizzes.
+1
Level 62
Jan 27, 2022
or just type OKC
+1
Level 40
Jul 26, 2022
thats just the nickname of the oklahoma city thunder, or okc thunder, an nba team
+1
Level 57
Jul 26, 2022
Is there a way to track first time takers? Top 10 list in terms of speed for each quiz? For a lot of these quizzes I think people look things up (google).
+2
Level 59
Jul 30, 2022
only first tries are recorded in the stats as far as im aware
+1
Level 40
Jul 26, 2022
i actually expected nashville to be higher but whatever
+1
Level 61
Oct 2, 2023
Anybody else f-ing surprised to see OKLAHOMA CITY on the list?
+1
Level 82
Nov 13, 2023
No. Pretty easy guess if you've been there.