Random Country and City
Argentina
- Buenos Aires
- A city there
- Buenos Aires
- Capital
- South America
- Region
Buenos Aires · Córdoba · Rosario · Mendoza
The generator draws a country from a bundled list of 78, returning its capital and one of its larger cities. The list is a selection spread across every inhabited region rather than every country in the world, and the page shows the count so you know what you are drawing from.
How it works
- Each entry holds a country, its capital and three other major cities, tagged by region.
- Drawing picks a country first, then one city from the four listed for it, so the capital and the other cities are equally likely.
- The region filter narrows the pool to Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America or Oceania.
- Every country appears exactly once, so each has the same chance within whatever pool is selected.
There are 195 UN member and observer states. This list holds 78, chosen to cover every region rather than to be complete. The count is stated on the page and in the filter so a draw is never presented as being from "the world".
Capital cities are the political capital, which is not always the largest city or the one people name. South Africa has three capitals and this lists Pretoria, the executive one; Bolivia's constitutional capital is Sucre, not La Paz.
Examples
Anywhere
Region
All
Result
One of 78 countries, each with a 1.3% chance
The draw is flat across countries, so regions with more entries in the list come up more often.
Filtered to a region
Region
Africa
Result
Drawn from the African entries only
The filter shows how many countries it holds, so the odds are never a guess.
A capital that surprises people
Country
Bolivia
Result
Capital: Sucre
La Paz is the seat of government and much larger, but Sucre is the constitutional capital. The other cities list includes La Paz.
Frequently asked questions
Does it include every country?
No. It holds 78 of the 195 UN member and observer states, chosen to spread across every inhabited region. The count is shown on the page and in the region filter, so a draw is never presented as being from the full world.
Is the city always the capital?
No. Each country lists its capital plus three other major cities, and the draw picks one of the four at random. The capital is shown separately as well, so you always see both.
Why is the capital of South Africa listed as Pretoria?
Because South Africa has three: Pretoria is the executive capital, Cape Town the legislative and Bloemfontein the judicial. Pretoria is the usual single answer, and Cape Town appears in the cities list.
Are the cities the largest ones?
They are major cities, chosen for recognisability rather than strictly by population. For several countries the largest city is not the capital (Sydney over Canberra, Istanbul over Ankara) and both appear in those entries.
What is this actually for?
Picking a country for a geography quiz, choosing a destination to research, seeding a writing prompt, or filling test data with a plausible place. For random coordinates rather than a named place, the random coordinates tool draws a point on the surface instead.