50 questions · capital named, click the state · score tracked
US state capitals quiz
A capital city is named; click the state it belongs to. All 50 capitals are asked once, in random order, and your score is counted as you go.
How the quiz works
The bar above the map shows a capital, for example "Pierre". Click the state on the map that has that capital. A correct click turns the state green and moves to the next question. A wrong click is counted as a miss; after three misses on the same capital the correct state is highlighted so you can carry on. The score line shows correct answers out of questions asked. Press Play again to reshuffle all 50. Alaska and Hawaii are included, so use the map's inset when Juneau or Honolulu comes up.
This quiz is harder than the plain state quiz because it tests two things at once: which state a capital belongs to, and where that state sits on the map. If you get the state right but click the wrong spot, that is a map problem, not a capitals problem — do the region quizzes first.
Study list: all 50 capitals
Only 17 capitals are also their state's largest city (Phoenix, Little Rock, Denver, Atlanta, Honolulu, Boise, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Boston, Jackson, Columbus, Oklahoma City, Providence, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Charleston, Cheyenne). The other 33 states put the capital somewhere other than the biggest city, which is the main reason people find capitals hard to memorise.
Mnemonics that work for this set
- Capitals that are not the big city. Learn the exceptions as pairs: New York/Albany, California/Sacramento, Texas/Austin, Florida/Tallahassee, Illinois/Springfield, Pennsylvania/Harrisburg, Washington/Olympia, Michigan/Lansing, Ohio/Columbus (which is now also the largest city), Nevada/Carson City, Missouri/Jefferson City. Once these eleven are fixed, the rest follow.
- Presidential names. Jackson (Mississippi), Jefferson City (Missouri), Lincoln (Nebraska), Madison (Wisconsin). Four presidents, four states in the middle of the country.
- Capitals that share a name with something else. Columbia is South Carolina; Columbus is Ohio. Charleston is West Virginia's capital, but Charleston, South Carolina is not a capital. Portland is the largest city of both Maine and Oregon and the capital of neither — Maine's is Augusta, Oregon's is Salem.
- "Saint" and "Santa". Saint Paul is Minnesota (its twin, Minneapolis, is bigger). Santa Fe is New Mexico, the oldest capital city in the US and the highest at about 7,000 feet.
- The three that are named for the state. Oklahoma City, Indianapolis and Carson City (Kit Carson, not the state) — only the first two really help.
- Small capitals. Montpelier (Vermont), Pierre (South Dakota), Augusta (Maine) and Helena (Montana) are among the smallest state capitals. Montpelier has fewer than 10,000 people.
Related pages
- US map with state capitals — every capital marked, as the answer key.
- Printable capitals worksheet — blank map with a dot at each capital to name on paper.
- Capitals answer key for printing.