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Capitals of the world
Manila, capital of Philippines: facts and figures
Manila is the capital of Philippines. It has about 14,400,000 residents, which makes it the 9th most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 12 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Taipei, 1,161 km away.
Key figures
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Country | Philippines |
| Continent | Asia |
| City population | 14,400,000 residents |
| World rank by population | 9th of 172 |
| Elevation | 12 m |
| Founded | 1571 |
| Time zone | Asia/Manila |
| Coordinates | 14.60° N, 120.98° E |
| Country population | 116,786,962 residents |
| Country GDP | 487.1 billion US dollars |
| GDP per capita | $4,171 |
| Life expectancy | 69.9 years |
| Internet users | 67.3 % |
| Big Mac price | ₱169 (about $2.74) |
Climate through the year
Manila averages 25.9 °C from December to February and 27.6 °C from June to August. January is the coldest month of the year and May the warmest, and the city receives 2,177 mm of precipitation in an average year.
| Month | Mean temperature |
|---|---|
| January | 25.5 °C |
| February | 25.9 °C |
| March | 27.4 °C |
| April | 29.0 °C |
| May | 29.5 °C |
| June | 28.2 °C |
| July | 27.4 °C |
| August | 27.2 °C |
| September | 27.1 °C |
| October | 27.1 °C |
| November | 27.2 °C |
| December | 26.4 °C |
What makes it stand out
- Isolation: 3rd most isolated capital in Asia (1,161 km).
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. Taipei is the closest capital to Manila.
| Capital | Country | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Taipei | Taiwan | 1,161 km |
| Bandar Seri Begawan | Brunei | 1,266 km |
| Hanoi | Vietnam | 1,753 km |
| Phnom Penh | Cambodia | 1,771 km |
| Vientiane | Laos | 1,993 km |
How to remember it
Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Manila to a place and a number you already know: it is 1,161 km from Taipei, and it is the 9th 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 Philippines 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
Manila is the capital of Philippines, in Asia, with about 14,400,000 residents, averaging 25.9 °C from December to February and 27.6 °C from June to August.
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Play today's DailyGeo puzzleFrequently asked questions
What is the capital of Philippines?
Manila is the capital of Philippines. It has about 14,400,000 residents and lies in Asia.
How many people live in Manila?
About 14,400,000, which ranks Manila 9th of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.
What is the weather like in Manila?
Manila averages 25.9 °C from December to February and 27.6 °C from June to August, with 2,177 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.
How expensive is Manila?
A Big Mac costs ₱169 (about $2.74) there. GDP per capita in the country is $4,171, the latest year the World Bank reports.
Keep learning
- Taipei, capital of Taiwan: facts and figures
Taipei is the capital of Taiwan: 2,600,000 residents, 17 m above sea level, 16.9 °C in winter and 28.5 °C in summer. Key figures and sources.
- Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei: facts and figures
Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital of Brunei: 100,000 residents, 7 m above sea level, 26.1 °C from December to February and 26.9 °C from June to August.
- Hanoi, capital of Vietnam: facts and figures
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam: 8,100,000 residents, 24 m above sea level, 17.8 °C from December to February and 29.1 °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.