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Capitals of the world
Bucharest, capital of Romania: facts and figures
Bucharest is the capital of Romania. It has about 1,800,000 residents, which makes it the 80th most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 83 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Sofia, 295 km away.
Key figures
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Country | Romania |
| Continent | Europe |
| City population | 1,800,000 residents |
| World rank by population | 80th of 172 |
| Elevation | 83 m |
| Founded | 1459 |
| Time zone | Europe/Bucharest |
| Coordinates | 44.43° N, 26.10° E |
| Country population | 19,020,271 residents |
| Country GDP | 428.7 billion US dollars |
| GDP per capita | $22,538 |
| Life expectancy | 76.5 years |
| Internet users | 91.3 % |
| Big Mac price | RON 18.35 (about $4.01) |
Climate through the year
Bucharest averages 1.9 °C in winter and 23.9 °C in summer. January is the coldest month of the year and August the warmest, and the city receives 631 mm of precipitation in an average year.
| Month | Mean temperature |
|---|---|
| January | -0.2 °C |
| February | 3.4 °C |
| March | 6.6 °C |
| April | 12.1 °C |
| May | 17.1 °C |
| June | 22.2 °C |
| July | 24.6 °C |
| August | 24.8 °C |
| September | 19.6 °C |
| October | 12.9 °C |
| November | 7.2 °C |
| December | 2.6 °C |
What makes it stand out
- Prices: 3rd cheapest capital for a Big Mac in Europe ($4.01).
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. Sofia is the closest capital to Bucharest.
| Capital | Country | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Sofia | Bulgaria | 295 km |
| Chișinău | Moldova | 358 km |
| Belgrade | Serbia | 449 km |
| Skopje | North Macedonia | 466 km |
| Podgorica | Montenegro | 595 km |
How to remember it
Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Bucharest to a place and a number you already know: it is 295 km from Sofia, and it is the 80th 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 Romania 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
Bucharest is the capital of Romania, in Europe, with about 1,800,000 residents, averaging 1.9 °C in winter and 23.9 °C in summer.
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Play today's DailyGeo puzzleFrequently asked questions
What is the capital of Romania?
Bucharest is the capital of Romania. It has about 1,800,000 residents and lies in Europe.
How many people live in Bucharest?
About 1,800,000, which ranks Bucharest 80th of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.
What is the weather like in Bucharest?
Bucharest averages 1.9 °C in winter and 23.9 °C in summer, with 631 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.
How expensive is Bucharest?
A Big Mac costs RON 18.35 (about $4.01) there. GDP per capita in the country is $22,538, the latest year the World Bank reports.
Keep learning
- Sofia, capital of Bulgaria: facts and figures
Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria: 1,280,000 residents, 548 m above sea level, 1.9 °C in winter and 21.6 °C in summer. Key figures and sources.
- Chișinău, capital of Moldova: facts and figures
Chișinău is the capital of Moldova: 640,000 residents, 48 m above sea level, 1.1 °C in winter and 23.0 °C in summer. Key figures and sources.
- Belgrade, capital of Serbia: facts and figures
Belgrade is the capital of Serbia: 1,400,000 residents, 145 m above sea level, 3.4 °C in winter and 23.4 °C in summer. 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.