The United States is a bit odd in when it puts its state capitals. Ask a random person what the capital of a random state is and they’ll probably tell you the name of the largest city in that state – but in the US that’s rarely the correct answer.
Only 17 of the 50 states have their most populous city as their capital: Wyoming, Idaho, West Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma, Iowa, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Utah, Colorado, Massachusetts, Arizona, Rhode Island, Ohio and South Carolina.
The other 33 states have a small, generally obscure, city as their capital. For example, take a look at this map of California:
It’s as though the state capital was chosen for maximum annoyance of the citizens of California. Sacramento isn’t the largest city (L.A.) but the 6th. Now, perhaps there are reasons you don’t want to use the largest city as your capital. The next most logical choice would be to use the center of population – the point that would take the least distance for everyone in the state to travel too. But again, this is rarely the choice.
The map below shows all of the capitals (cyan), largest cities if not the capital (red) and the center of population for each of the fifty states:
I’ve also put together a table showing how far away the center of population is from the state capital building.
|
Capital City |
State |
Distance from Center of Population(mi) |
|
|
Juneau |
Alaska |
544.32 |
|
|
Sacramento |
California |
246.15 |
|
|
Carson City |
Nevada |
243.42 |
|
|
Tallahassee |
Florida |
241.24 |
|
|
Cheyenne |
Wyoming |
156.10 |
|
|
Springfield |
Illinois |
122.43 |
|
|
Albany |
New York |
91.07 |
|
|
Bismarck |
North Dakota |
78.33 |
|
|
Santa Fe |
New Mexico |
76.23 |
|
|
Pierre |
South Dakota |
70.93 |
|
|
Boise |
Idaho |
65.63 |
|
|
Olympia |
Washington |
63.71 |
|
|
Raleigh |
North Carolina |
59.52 |
|
|
Topeka |
Kansas |
58.41 |
|
|
Charleston |
West Virginia |
57.22 |
|
|
Montgomery |
Alabama |
51.02 |
|
|
Austin |
Texas |
48.96 |
|
|
Madison |
Wisconsin |
48.37 |
|
|
Lincoln |
Nebraska |
40.90 |
|
|
Jackson |
Mississippi |
40.36 |
|
|
Atlanta |
Georgia |
38.86 |
|
|
Oklahoma City |
Oklahoma |
38.20 |
|
|
Des Moines |
Iowa |
38.16 |
|
|
Helena |
Montana |
36.96 |
|
|
Columbus |
Ohio |
36.14 |
|
|
Little Rock |
Arkansas |
34.34 |
|
|
Nashville |
Tennessee |
34.30 |
|
|
Frankfort |
Kentucky |
32.25 |
|
|
Saint Paul |
Minnesota |
28.64 |
|
|
Richmond |
Virginia |
27.91 |
|
|
Honolulu |
Hawaii |
27.45 |
|
|
Indianapolis |
Indiana |
26.80 |
|
|
Baton Rouge |
Louisiana |
26.51 |
|
|
Salt Lake City |
Utah |
26.06 |
|
|
Salem |
Oregon |
25.65 |
|
|
Trenton |
New Jersey |
23.02 |
|
|
Hartford |
Connecticut |
20.85 |
|
|
Lansing |
Michigan |
20.29 |
|
|
Annapolis |
Maryland |
19.91 |
|
|
Denver |
Colorado |
19.61 |
|
|
Montpelier |
Vermont |
16.44 |
|
|
Boston |
Massachusetts |
16.42 |
|
|
Harrisburg |
Pennsylvania |
14.87 |
|
|
Phoenix |
Arizona |
14.52 |
|
|
Dover |
Delaware |
14.08 |
|
|
Jefferson City |
Missouri |
10.82 |
|
|
Providence |
Rhode Island |
5.65 |
|
|
Concord |
New Hampshire |
5.25 |
|
|
Augusta |
Maine |
2.29 |
|
|
Columbia |
South Carolina |
2.13 |
You can see the full Google Doc here, which I’ve used for several other of my blog posts such as passport ownership in the United States and the rate of growth of the United States and median income.