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Managua, capital of Nicaragua: facts and figures

Managua is the capital of Nicaragua. It has about 1,050,000 residents, which makes it the 116th most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 174 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Tegucigalpa, 241 km away.

Key figures

FigureValue
CountryNicaragua
ContinentNorth America
City population1,050,000 residents
World rank by population116th of 172
Elevation174 m
Founded1819
Time zoneAmerica/Managua
Coordinates12.11° N, 86.24° W
Country population7,007,502 residents
Country GDP22.2 billion US dollars
GDP per capita$3,173
Life expectancy75.1 years
Internet users61.4 %
Big Mac priceNIO 187 (about $5.11)

Climate through the year

Managua averages 26.5 °C from December to February and 26.6 °C from June to August. October is the coldest month of the year and April the warmest, and the city receives 1,550 mm of precipitation in an average year.

Monthly means from ERA5 reanalysis, 2015 to 2024.
MonthMean temperature
January26.4 °C
February26.7 °C
March27.6 °C
April28.6 °C
May27.5 °C
June26.2 °C
July26.8 °C
August26.8 °C
September26.4 °C
October25.8 °C
November25.9 °C
December26.3 °C

What makes it stand out

  • Winter: 3rd mildest capital in North America (26.5 °C).
  • Age: 3rd most recently founded capital in North America (1819).
  • Latitude: 3rd southernmost capital in North America (12.11°).
  • Prices: 2nd cheapest capital for a Big Mac in North America ($5.11).

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. Tegucigalpa is the closest capital to Managua.

CapitalCountryDistance
TegucigalpaHonduras241 km
San JoséCosta Rica338 km
San SalvadorEl Salvador365 km
Guatemala CityGuatemala540 km
BelmopanBelize633 km

How to remember it

Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Managua to a place and a number you already know: it is 241 km from Tegucigalpa, and it is the 116th 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 Nicaragua 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

Managua is the capital of Nicaragua, in North America, with about 1,050,000 residents, averaging 26.5 °C from December to February and 26.6 °C from June to August.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of Nicaragua?

Managua is the capital of Nicaragua. It has about 1,050,000 residents and lies in North America.

How many people live in Managua?

About 1,050,000, which ranks Managua 116th of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.

What is the weather like in Managua?

Managua averages 26.5 °C from December to February and 26.6 °C from June to August, with 1,550 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.

How expensive is Managua?

A Big Mac costs NIO 187 (about $5.11) there. GDP per capita in the country is $3,173, the latest year the World Bank reports.

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