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Capitals of the world
Taipei, capital of Taiwan: facts and figures
Taipei is the capital of Taiwan. It has about 2,600,000 residents, which makes it the 58th most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 17 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Manila, 1,161 km away.
Key figures
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Country | Taiwan |
| Continent | Asia |
| City population | 2,600,000 residents |
| World rank by population | 58th of 172 |
| Elevation | 17 m |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Time zone | Asia/Taipei |
| Coordinates | 25.03° N, 121.57° E |
| Country population | not reported |
| Country GDP | not reported |
| GDP per capita | not reported |
| Life expectancy | not reported |
| Internet users | not reported |
| Big Mac price | NT$78.00 (about $2.42) |
Climate through the year
Taipei averages 16.9 °C in winter and 28.5 °C in summer. January is the coldest month of the year and July the warmest, and the city receives 1,803 mm of precipitation in an average year.
| Month | Mean temperature |
|---|---|
| January | 16.3 °C |
| February | 16.6 °C |
| March | 18.8 °C |
| April | 22.0 °C |
| May | 25.2 °C |
| June | 27.7 °C |
| July | 29.1 °C |
| August | 28.6 °C |
| September | 27.1 °C |
| October | 24.2 °C |
| November | 21.7 °C |
| December | 17.7 °C |
What makes it stand out
- Age: 2nd most recently founded capital in Asia (1967).
- Prices: 3rd cheapest capital for a Big Mac in the world ($2.42).
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. Manila is the closest capital to Taipei.
| Capital | Country | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Manila | Philippines | 1,161 km |
| Seoul | South Korea | 1,485 km |
| Pyongyang | North Korea | 1,607 km |
| Hanoi | Vietnam | 1,668 km |
| Beijing | China | 1,722 km |
How to remember it
Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Taipei to a place and a number you already know: it is 1,161 km from Manila, and it is the 58th 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 Taiwan 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.
- 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
Taipei is the capital of Taiwan, in Asia, with about 2,600,000 residents, averaging 16.9 °C in winter and 28.5 °C in summer.
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Play today's DailyGeo puzzleFrequently asked questions
What is the capital of Taiwan?
Taipei is the capital of Taiwan. It has about 2,600,000 residents and lies in Asia.
How many people live in Taipei?
About 2,600,000, which ranks Taipei 58th of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.
What is the weather like in Taipei?
Taipei averages 16.9 °C in winter and 28.5 °C in summer, with 1,803 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.
How expensive is Taipei?
A Big Mac costs NT$78.00 (about $2.42) there. The World Bank does not report a recent GDP per capita figure for this country.
Keep learning
- Manila, capital of Philippines: facts and figures
Manila is the capital of Philippines: 14,400,000 residents, 12 m above sea level, 25.9 °C from December to February and 27.6 °C from June to August.
- Seoul, capital of South Korea: facts and figures
Seoul is the capital of South Korea: 9,700,000 residents, 37 m above sea level, -1.6 °C in winter and 24.2 °C in summer. Key figures and sources.
- Pyongyang, capital of North Korea: facts and figures
Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea: 3,000,000 residents, 74 m above sea level, -3.3 °C in winter and 23.6 °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.