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Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan: facts and figures

Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan. It has about 1,050,000 residents, which makes it the 115th most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 764 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Tashkent, 475 km away.

Key figures

FigureValue
CountryKyrgyzstan
ContinentAsia
City population1,050,000 residents
World rank by population115th of 172
Elevation764 m
Founded1825
Time zoneAsia/Bishkek
Coordinates42.87° N, 74.59° E
Country population7,343,064 residents
Country GDP22.6 billion US dollars
GDP per capita$3,081
Life expectancy72.4 years
Internet users92.0 %
Big Mac pricenot reported

Climate through the year

Bishkek averages -1.1 °C in winter and 23.7 °C in summer. January is the coldest month of the year and July the warmest, and the city receives 650 mm of precipitation in an average year.

Monthly means from ERA5 reanalysis, 2015 to 2024.
MonthMean temperature
January-2.3 °C
February0.0 °C
March6.2 °C
April12.3 °C
May17.0 °C
June22.1 °C
July25.6 °C
August23.3 °C
September17.9 °C
October10.3 °C
November3.3 °C
December-1.1 °C

What makes it stand out

  • Latitude: 3rd northernmost capital in Asia (42.87°).

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. Tashkent is the closest capital to Bishkek.

CapitalCountryDistance
TashkentUzbekistan475 km
DushanbeTajikistan684 km
AstanaKazakhstan953 km
IslamabadPakistan1,030 km
KabulAfghanistan1,039 km

How to remember it

Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Bishkek to a place and a number you already know: it is 475 km from Tashkent, and it is the 115th 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 Kyrgyzstan compares with every other country on figures like these, the richest countries by GDP per capita 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.
  • 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

Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan, in Asia, with about 1,050,000 residents, averaging -1.1 °C in winter and 23.7 °C in summer.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of Kyrgyzstan?

Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan. It has about 1,050,000 residents and lies in Asia.

How many people live in Bishkek?

About 1,050,000, which ranks Bishkek 115th of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.

What is the weather like in Bishkek?

Bishkek averages -1.1 °C in winter and 23.7 °C in summer, with 650 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.

How expensive is Bishkek?

GDP per capita in the country is $3,081, the latest year the World Bank reports.

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