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Guatemala City, capital of Guatemala: facts and figures

Guatemala City is the capital of Guatemala. It has about 2,900,000 residents, which makes it the 52nd most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 1,497 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is San Salvador, 177 km away.

Key figures

FigureValue
CountryGuatemala
ContinentNorth America
City population2,900,000 residents
World rank by population52nd of 172
Elevation1,497 m
Founded1524
Time zoneAmerica/Guatemala
Coordinates14.63° N, 90.51° W
Country population18,687,881 residents
Country GDP123.3 billion US dollars
GDP per capita$6,598
Life expectancy72.7 years
Internet users60.2 %
Big Mac priceGTQ 34.00 (about $4.46)

Climate through the year

Guatemala City averages 17.2 °C from December to February and 19.1 °C from June to August. January is the coldest month of the year and April the warmest, and the city receives 1,278 mm of precipitation in an average year.

Monthly means from ERA5 reanalysis, 2015 to 2024.
MonthMean temperature
January16.9 °C
February17.8 °C
March19.2 °C
April20.4 °C
May20.3 °C
June19.1 °C
July18.9 °C
August19.2 °C
September18.9 °C
October18.3 °C
November17.5 °C
December17.0 °C

What makes it stand out

  • Elevation: 2nd highest capital in North America (1,497 m).
  • Prices: cheapest capital for a Big Mac in North America ($4.46).

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. San Salvador is the closest capital to Guatemala City.

CapitalCountryDistance
San SalvadorEl Salvador177 km
BelmopanBelize346 km
TegucigalpaHonduras363 km
ManaguaNicaragua540 km
San JoséCosta Rica872 km

How to remember it

Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Guatemala City to a place and a number you already know: it is 177 km from San Salvador, and it is the 52nd 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 Guatemala 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

Guatemala City is the capital of Guatemala, in North America, with about 2,900,000 residents, averaging 17.2 °C from December to February and 19.1 °C from June to August.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of Guatemala?

Guatemala City is the capital of Guatemala. It has about 2,900,000 residents and lies in North America.

How many people live in Guatemala City?

About 2,900,000, which ranks Guatemala City 52nd of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.

What is the weather like in Guatemala City?

Guatemala City averages 17.2 °C from December to February and 19.1 °C from June to August, with 1,278 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.

How expensive is Guatemala City?

A Big Mac costs GTQ 34.00 (about $4.46) there. GDP per capita in the country is $6,598, the latest year the World Bank reports.

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