State Capitals List

Free printables

Single sheets you can print right now, no sign-up. The full pack adds every sheet in one download plus the editable files.

Printable States and Capitals List2 pages · free PDFPrintable State Capitals by Region2 pages · free PDFPrintable State Capitals Flashcards5 pages · free PDFPrintable States and Capitals Quiz2 pages · free PDFState Capitals Quiz Printable2 pages · free PDFPrintable State Capitals Quiz2 pages · free PDFPrintable States and Capitals Quiz 42 pages · free PDFPrintable States and Capitals Tracker2 pages · free PDF

Browse the free printables →

List of US state capitals

Facts about state capitals

• Juneau, Alaska, cannot be reached by road from the rest of North America — people arrive by air or sea.
• Honolulu is the only state capital on an island in the Pacific; it is also Hawaii’s largest city.
• Several capitals share a name: Columbia (South Carolina) and Columbus (Ohio) are often confused, and there are cities called Springfield, Jackson, Lincoln, Madison and Columbia in many states.
• Boston, Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta and Indianapolis are both their state’s capital and its largest city, but many capitals — such as Albany, Sacramento, Tallahassee, Springfield and Harrisburg — are much smaller than their state’s biggest city.
• Montpelier, Vermont, is the least populous state capital.
• Washington, D.C., the national capital, is not in any state.

Commonly confused capitals

How to learn all 50 capitals

1. Learn by region rather than alphabetically — neighbouring states are easier to remember together.
2. Start with capitals that match the largest city (Boston, Denver, Phoenix) — quick wins.
3. Use memory hooks: “Frankfort” and “Kentucky” — hot dogs at the Derby; “Pierre” in South Dakota is pronounced “peer”.
4. Quiz yourself in both directions: state to capital and capital to state.
5. Take a 10-question quiz daily and review the ones you miss.
6. Print flashcards and sort them into “know” and “still learning” piles.

Census regions

The US Census Bureau groups the states into four regions. The South is the largest by number of states (16), followed by the West (13), the Midwest (12) and the Northeast (9).

Why many capitals are small cities

When the states were forming their governments, many chose a capital near the geographic centre of the state so that legislators could reach it more easily by horse or river, or picked a site as a compromise between competing cities. Some capitals moved several times before settling. That is why cities such as Springfield, Illinois, Jefferson City, Missouri, and Pierre, South Dakota, are capitals while much larger cities — Chicago, Kansas City and Sioux Falls — are not.

Postal abbreviations

The two-letter state codes were introduced by the US Post Office in 1963 alongside ZIP codes. Watch out for the tricky ones: AK is Alaska and AR is Arkansas; MI is Michigan, MN Minnesota, MS Mississippi and MO Missouri; MA is Massachusetts, ME Maine and MD Maryland; IA is Iowa and IN Indiana.

Using the list and quiz

Search by state, capital or abbreviation, filter by region and sort by any column. The quiz asks multiple-choice questions in a random order; each wrong answer shows the right one and is listed at the end for review. Choose 50 questions for a full test of every state.

Worked example

A student preparing for a geography test filters the list to the Northeast region, prints the nine states and capitals, and studies them for ten minutes. They then take a 10-question quiz on “What is the capital of…?”, score 8, and see that they confused Concord (New Hampshire) and Montpelier (Vermont). The next day they practise capital-to-state questions for those two.

For teachers and parents

The printable pack includes the list by state and by region, flashcards, blank quiz sheets with answer keys and a tracking chart. Quiz sheets can be used for bell-ringers, homework or a states-and-capitals bee.

Privacy

The list and quiz run in your browser; nothing is uploaded or stored.