Oceania Capitals Quiz

Capital cities of Oceania.

Capitals of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific island nations — only fourteen answers, and most people can name three.

Small list, low scores

Fourteen countries should make this easy. In practice it is one of the lowest-scoring quizzes on the site, because outside Australia and New Zealand almost nobody has encountered these cities.

The good news is that fourteen is genuinely finishable in a couple of focused sessions.

The two everyone gets wrong first

Australia is Canberra, not Sydney and not Melbourne. Canberra was purpose-built as a compromise after Sydney and Melbourne both claimed the capital, and construction began in 1913. Sydney is the largest city and the one everyone pictures, which makes this one of the most-missed capitals in the world.

New Zealand is Wellington, not Auckland. Auckland is substantially larger. Wellington sits at the southern tip of the North Island and is the southernmost capital city of any sovereign state.

Those two account for most wrong answers in the entire quiz.

The Pacific twelve

Papua New Guinea — Port Moresby
Fiji — Suva
Solomon Islands — Honiara
Vanuatu — Port Vila
Samoa — Apia
Tonga — Nuku'alofa
Kiribati — Tarawa
Tuvalu — Funafuti
Nauru — Yaren
Palau — Ngerulmud
Marshall Islands — Majuro
Micronesia — Palikir

The two oddities worth knowing

Nauru has no official capital. Yaren is where the government buildings are and it is what quizzes accept, but Nauru has never formally designated a capital — it is a single island of about 21 square kilometres, so the concept barely applies. That is unusual enough to be memorable, which makes Yaren easy to retain once you know the story.

Ngerulmud, Palau is one of the least populous capitals in the world, with only a few hundred people. It was purpose-built and the government moved there in 2006 from Koror, which is still the largest town and still a common wrong answer.

The port pattern

Three capitals here begin with "Port": Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), Port Vila (Vanuatu) and Port of Spain — though that last one is in Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean, not the Pacific. Grouping the two Pacific ones helps; being aware of the third stops you misfiling it.

Why these are worth learning anyway

Fourteen countries is a small investment, and Pacific capitals appear disproportionately often in general-knowledge quizzes precisely because they are obscure. A quiz-setter looking for a hard question reaches for Funafuti or Ngerulmud far more readily than for Paris.

Where to go next

Oceania Flags covers the same fourteen countries, and several of those flags are literally geographic — Nauru's star marks its position below the Equator, Tuvalu's nine stars map its islands — which makes them stick faster than the capitals do.

Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of Australia?

Canberra. Sydney and Melbourne both claimed the capital after federation, so a new city was purpose-built between them as a compromise, with construction beginning in 1913. Sydney is the largest city, which is why this is so commonly missed.

What is the capital of New Zealand?

Wellington, at the southern tip of the North Island. Auckland is considerably larger. Wellington is the southernmost capital city of any sovereign state in the world.

Does Nauru have a capital?

Not officially. Nauru has never formally designated one. Yaren is the district containing the government buildings and is what quizzes accept as the answer. The island is only about 21 square kilometres, so the distinction has little practical meaning.

What is the smallest capital city in the world?

Ngerulmud in Palau is among the very smallest, with only a few hundred residents. It was purpose-built and became the seat of government in 2006, replacing Koror, which remains the country's largest town.

Play Oceania Capitals offline in the app

Oceania Capitals Quiz and the rest of the arcade are in the free Geography Quiz Arcade app: Get it on Google Play · Download on the App Store.