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Capitals of the world
Bangkok, capital of Thailand: facts and figures
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. It has about 10,700,000 residents, which makes it the 15th most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 7 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Vientiane, 522 km away.
Key figures
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Country | Thailand |
| Continent | Asia |
| City population | 10,700,000 residents |
| World rank by population | 15th of 172 |
| Elevation | 7 m |
| Founded | 1782 |
| Time zone | Asia/Bangkok |
| Coordinates | 13.76° N, 100.50° E |
| Country population | 71,619,863 residents |
| Country GDP | 577 billion US dollars |
| GDP per capita | $8,057 |
| Life expectancy | 76.6 years |
| Internet users | 90.9 % |
| Big Mac price | THB 135 (about $4.02) |
Climate through the year
Bangkok averages 26.9 °C from December to February and 28.4 °C from June to August. January is the coldest month of the year and April the warmest, and the city receives 1,492 mm of precipitation in an average year.
| Month | Mean temperature |
|---|---|
| January | 26.5 °C |
| February | 27.6 °C |
| March | 29.1 °C |
| April | 30.0 °C |
| May | 29.7 °C |
| June | 28.9 °C |
| July | 28.2 °C |
| August | 28.0 °C |
| September | 27.6 °C |
| October | 27.2 °C |
| November | 27.3 °C |
| December | 26.6 °C |
Nearest capitals
Distances are great-circle distances between city centres, which is what the Capitals game measures when it tells you how far a guess was from the answer. Vientiane is the closest capital to Bangkok.
| Capital | Country | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Vientiane | Laos | 522 km |
| Phnom Penh | Cambodia | 538 km |
| Naypyidaw | Myanmar | 816 km |
| Hanoi | Vietnam | 988 km |
| Kuala Lumpur | Malaysia | 1,188 km |
How to remember it
Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Bangkok to a place and a number you already know: it is 522 km from Vientiane, and it is the 15th largest capital in the atlas. Then practise retrieving it. DailyGeo Capitals gives you one mystery capital a day with distance, direction, language and population clues, the memorising method explains the review schedule, and the capitals index lists all 172.
To see how Thailand compares with every other country on figures like these, the most expensive Big Mac index ranks them on geopolitix, a country-ranking game by the same maker as DailyGeo.
Sources
- City population and coordinates: DailyGeo's own game data, the same figures the Capitals game plays with. Population follows the urban area rather than the commune, which is why no density is quoted.
- Temperature and rainfall: ten-year means (2015 to 2024) computed from ERA5 reanalysis, retrieved through Open-Meteo. Hersbach, H., et al. (2020). The ERA5 global reanalysis. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
- Elevation: terrain height at the city's coordinates in the Copernicus DEM, read through Open-Meteo rather than taken from a curated claim.
- Time zone: resolved from the same coordinates.
- Country figures: the World Bank, latest reported year for each series: Country GDP, GDP per capita, Country population, Life expectancy, Internet users.
- Big Mac price: The Economist's Big Mac index, from its published dataset. The index covers about 55 economies, so most capitals here have no figure.
- Founding date: Wikidata, earliest recorded founding claim.
- This capital elsewhere: Wikipedia, UNdata, Wikidata.
- Method and limits: How this data was collected explains how each figure was collected and what it does not cover.
The short answer
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, in Asia, with about 10,700,000 residents, averaging 26.9 °C from December to February and 28.4 °C from June to August.
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Play today's DailyGeo puzzleFrequently asked questions
What is the capital of Thailand?
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand. It has about 10,700,000 residents and lies in Asia.
How many people live in Bangkok?
About 10,700,000, which ranks Bangkok 15th of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.
What is the weather like in Bangkok?
Bangkok averages 26.9 °C from December to February and 28.4 °C from June to August, with 1,492 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.
How expensive is Bangkok?
A Big Mac costs THB 135 (about $4.02) there. GDP per capita in the country is $8,057, the latest year the World Bank reports.
Keep learning
- Vientiane, capital of Laos: facts and figures
Vientiane is the capital of Laos: 950,000 residents, 176 m above sea level, 23.0 °C from December to February and 27.3 °C from June to August. Key figures and sources.
- Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia: facts and figures
Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia: 2,100,000 residents, 16 m above sea level, 27.2 °C from December to February and 28.1 °C from June to August.
- Naypyidaw, capital of Myanmar: facts and figures
Naypyidaw is the capital of Myanmar: 920,000 residents, 154 m above sea level, 23.4 °C from December to February and 25.8 °C from June to August. Key figures and sources.
- Capitals of the world: the full list by continent
Every capital in DailyGeo's atlas, grouped by continent, with population, elevation and winter and summer temperatures, each linking to its own data page.