@@Artur_M. exactly, I live here all my life, what is bad about Łódź? You have to be a total wussy to be scared of Łódź. I can walk most of the neighbourhoods middle of the night no problem. No incidents.
Population center doesn't automatically mean it's the ideal position for a capital. There are many more factors that need to be considered, like infrastructure, access to the sea/major rivers, proximity to other countries (e.g. Dublin facing the UK)/major cities (e.g. Helsinki and Tallinn), cultural and historical significance (e.g. Berlin, Warsaw) or just being the biggest city of a country (most of them). This is an interesting vosualization, but I think it would be more honest if it was just presented as "these are the population centers of different countries", instead of trying to determine entire capitals based on a single metric.
Thank you for the extensive feedback. I agree with the title of the video. But if its title was just "these are the population centers of different countries", no one would watch it. Unfortunately, this is how it works. As for the theses about capitals. There are many cases when the capital of a country was moved from the largest city to a smaller one, but inland (Pakistan, Turkey, Brazil, Kazakhstan, etc. I have another video about this). And after the relocation, the new capitals began to grow rapidly, and perhaps in 50-100 years they will become the largest in their countries. By this I mean that the current capitals are the largest cities precisely because of the capital factor.
@@albertromansky9501that's also what Indonesia is doing - building a new capital in the centre of the country, partly to make administration easier and partly to move the population from Jakarta to somewhere else to prevent overpopulation in the former
@@albertromansky9501 To be fair, Turkey moved it's capital from Konstantinopole to Ankara to not be seen as a continuation of the Ottoman Empire, Brasilia was build to fight overpopulation in Rio de Janeiro (which failed). For Kazakhstan I couldn't find a reason, but it was under Nursultan, so I think it was just him wanting to move it for no reason. Pakistan moved it's capital to promote development in other parts of the country, and not just in Karachi. None of those cities have any realistic perspectives of becoming the biggest cities in their countries
@@Adixeeel the germans used to rule the area 'til the slavic expansion, northwest of Germany used to have slavic culture until it was destroyed/removed by germans and conquered the area again (well your technically correct but the Germans is the first to own the land) (any correction?)
I have to disagree about the capital being in the centre of the country. A good example is New Delhi. New Delhi was known in ancient times as Indraprastha, and this city was located east of the Sutlej and Ghaggar rivers and west of the Yamuna river. The rivers to the west of Delhi (Indus river system) flow westward into the Arabian sea, while those in the east flow eastward into the Bay of Bengal. Due to this, the city of Indraprastha connects the Indus and Ganges river systems. To add to that, it is strategically located close to the Thar Desert, Chambal River (eastern Rajasthan and Western Madhya Pradesh) and Narmada River basin (Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh) in the centre of India. This even connects to the coasts of South India, since the rivers of both Indus and Ganges systems can connect to the open seas. So eventhough Delhi is not in the centre of the country, it is the passageway between the 2 river systems. Due to this it is arguably the best place to have a capital.
@@hpgamesr3777 You're right, Delhi is the ideal historical capital of India due to the connection between the two river systems. That being said, the Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and Ghaggar have lowland river streams that are well within India and the Sutlej-Yamuna canal works to connect Indian Punjab to Delhi.
Łódź actually was supposed to be the capital of Poland shortly after World War II due to Warsaw being completely destroyed, but this idea has been abandoned
A german here. To answer your question (1:33) - no, Hannover is not a good option for the capital. The city is justifiably known as the most boring of all major cities and since even now we have a reputation of rather dull people, I wouldn't enforce it further.
Furthermore Hannover is not ready to be a major city, the City Center was totally destroyed in WW2 but not rebuild, and outside of it you either have abandoned Industry, Low Income Blocks and lowrise housing
Luxembourger here. I first got your comment wrong. You are right! The upper third of Luxembourg, called "Oesling/Éislek" only has a population of about 80,000, a seventh of the total population, while two thirds of the coutry's population live south or just around the capital. This is due to historical reasons (the south had iron ore, and thus was industialised first), and geographical reasons: The Oesling is part of the Ardennes, a very hilly region.
The capital city is mostly decided because of historical reasons. Being central is good but it's not crucial. Also it doesn't need to be the largest city.
@@lunalingo4461Lithuania and Belarus both wanted to declare it their capital, but it was occupied by the poles and in 1939 Soviet army occupied Poland and used the city of Vilnius as a bait for Lithuania, they have territory to Lithuania when Lithuania allowed to place the Soviet army on its territory and that Soviet Union just occupied it and made it a new Soviet Republic
@@eternakrokodilanto5263”occupied” XD majority of Vilnus population we’re Polish and even today 20% of Vilnus population is Polish and in counties around Vilnus this number is much higher close to 80%
@ Vilnius is still Kryvian Mekka, the population wasn’t polish more polonised Belarusians and many Belarusian writers, poets and politicians lived there
Only after this comment I have realised that it's really common case. Latvia, Belarus were mentioned in video. Additionally, Hungary, Portugal, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Croatia would be higher in ranking without their second largest cities. It's sound like great idea for new video 🙂
China has 3 perfect candidates. Xi’An, Chongqing and Chengdu. For Russia there 2 possibilities(3if we exclude Siberia). Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk [and Yekaterinburg]. St. Louis or Denver for US.
You were close about the US. Probably the centre of the population will be closer to Oklahoma, because the southern states like California, Texas, Florida have a super heavy impact
@@albertromansky9501 China's current population centroid is in Henan province, and the biggest city in this province is Zhengzhou. Would this be a good capital for the country?
Living in Germany for a few months I feel that the ideal capital location-wise would be Frankfurt. It’s about equally away from the huge conglomerate of the Ruhrgebiet, the populated Berlin, the big cities of the North as well as close to Bayern and Munich. Hannover would also be a very good option considering it’s equally distant from Berlin, Hamburg and Nordrhein-Westfalen, but the existence of the airport in Frankfurt makes it more of a hub in my eyes.
Please do it for countries that have relocated their capitals (or plan to), to see if it was reasonable. For example Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Egypt, South Korea etc.
Thank you for your comment. I didn't know that South Korea was planning to change its capital. I'll tell you briefly about other countries, more details will be in the video. Kazakhstan. The new capital is closer to the center of the population. But Astana is not the best option. Indonesia. Jakarta is planned to be relieved of traffic and population. The new capital should be on the island of Borneo, which is as far from the population center as the island of Java. Egypt. Cairo now has one of the most optimal locations in terms of population center among all countries in the world. Therefore, the transfer of the capital is due to the same reasons as for Jakarta
Interesting, where would be the center population of the Scandinavian countries. I guess near by Göteborg. I should definitely to make similar video about that
I don’t see why the criteria for a good capital is limited to the center of population. Cities like Vienna and Paris have much more historical precedent for capital and are the historic and current economic and cultural hub for the entire nation. I suppose it wouldn’t be a completely wild idea for Berlin ever since they destroyed Prussia, but Hannover has next to no claim at all to hold such an honor, I’d say Nürnberg or Mainz before them. Overall, I don’t like the idea of changing a capital for this reason.
This video is for informative purposes only. Paris and Vienna are undoubtedly the best options for their respective countries. Because there are no other choices. But still, the location in relation to the centre of the population makes sense. It may not be the most important aspect. But I believe that the journey to the capital should be the shortest and most convenient for the maximum number of residents of this country
@@albertromansky9501 during unification, what is today East Germany was in the central part of Germany, with Western Poland and Kaliningrad once being the real East Germany
@@albertromansky9501 I think that factor was a lot more relevant before the inventions of instant communications and the jet engine. With the exception of only the largest few countries, air travel makes the time penalty of a non-equidistant capital pretty negligible. Plus, what reason do most people even need for having rapid access to the capital city itself? In the modern world, unless you're being hauled before congress/parliament to testify, what bureaucratic government function would there be for you to need to be physically in the capital?
Estonia could be an example how such an "issue" cannot be solved with a calculator. The location is moved just 60 km, but it's enough to turn the offered location into a nonsense. It hits the area of forests and bogs, the biggest settlement around is Aravete (around 700). Moreover, building a settlement big enough for the needs of a capital would be really problematic, as there would be nearly no other water sources available than groundwater. And, building the new network of roads with needed capacity would not just cost a fortune, but would destroy a lot of nature as well.
This method is just like a hint. So if country's center population is far away from capital city, you should find the answer in the history or geographical reasons. I'll be clearly shown in the next part about Americas countries
There is actually an official calculation for Finland that includes the entire population and not just settlements. And it's located a bit closer to Helsinki than your calculation at exactly 100 kilometers from the city next to the village of Eteläinen (fittingly translated as Southern). The point has been moving south every year since the first calculation in the 80s. I would link it here but I'm not sure if TH-cam will allow it.
Not a fun but pretty interesting fact. Since Ukraine got it's independence and it's population started decreasing a bit later the population center started moving west after hundreds of years of moving to the east. With the russia starting war on Donbas and waging new agressive war millions of people fled to the western cities and it seems like population centre today might be significantly more further west
Bulgaria, Czechia, Italy, Belarus and Latvia are wrong. Those cities pulled population away from capital today, but they are not near population centres.
I was thinking the same thing, but after looking at it, this feels like an interwar map, shortly after the Treaty of Versailles, but before the Memelland was taken from Germany and given to Lithuania, Posen and West Prussia were given to Poland, and the Silesian "Uprisings". Not to mention before Austria-Hungary was officially dissolved
@zero_balfour That's true, after looking at it again, and the Baltic countries non-existence tells me that this map doesn't line up time wise, so "wtf is this map" actually works here
This is a paradox. Because a significant number of people would move to the country's capital for opportunities and other things, shifting the population center drastically. But if thr original city was not the capital, the population center would not be there
This is a very interesting concept. I would like to know the population center of countries such as the United States, Russia and China, this could also get extended to continents and maybe even the whole world.
@@albertromansky9501Thank you, that video was surprising, I thought it would have been more eastern. I wonder if you can run the algorithm using only cities in the European union
In Spain a lot of people think that Madrid shouldn,t be the capital (neither today nor historically) but when you look into the hard facts, it is revealed that it makes too much sense to have it there, and that today, back in the day it was even more useful as it meant that it was unsiegable due to being protected by the whole rest of the country and the multiple mountain ranges, the only foreign army that ocuppied Madrid was that of Napoleon, and that happened only because he attacked from the inside of the country.
Iceland has few settlements with more than 5000 inhabitants. Obviously, the population center will be very close to Reykjavik, which has more than 100,000 inhabitants
7:00 Wtf is this map? Austria-Hungary didn't exist alongside interwar Poland and the Russian Empire was already gone by now, where did you get that terrible map?
Fun fact is that if Lithuania will return it's capital to Kowna and hand Vilno to Belarus (in case lithuanians would leave this place and belarusians from big cities would move in) those 2 would be the winners on this list as well as this will undo one of the most strange (yet absolutely plain) political decissions of 20th century (it's strange because city was populated by poles/belarusians mostly when lithuanians was a minority here before the city was given to them).
If St Peter's Basilica is considered the capital of the Vatican, then perhaps the Vatican would be next to Belgium in this video. But first of all, you need to figure out where exactly the resident population of the Vatican lives
I think Athens should be higher but you can't count the importance of being a port at the center that can control all the Aegean Islands, whcih make the heart of Greece. Athens combines mainland and Island greece perfectly.
Very nice video, but you should find an AI with better pronunciation of city names. Also, it would be cool if you included all the countries of Europe. Even if they are small, the size shouldn't have a significant impact on the percentage value.
If you had problems with the pronunciation of Nice (🇫🇷), I'd *really* love to see how you manage with Cymru (🏴), where the village of Cwmystwyth, Ceredigion is the closest to a geographical centre. The nearest railway station would be Pont ar Fynach .... but since this is the upper terminus of a 60cm gauge tourist railway, with no direct service to any of several hundred more populous settlements, probably wouldn't be the best choice. I wonder which Icelandic 🇮🇸 volcano would get your vote to serve as capital (nearly the entire population lives on the coast)?
Greetings from the suburbs of Hannover. Hannover would indeed be a good option. Hannover has no slogan, no motto, nothing special but THE high german accent.
It's still called "High" German (Hochdeutsch) even though Hannover is quite flat! Even after all these centuries, though, the official spelling remains that of Meissen (which is rocky enough) because that's where Martin Luther wrote the first German Bible.
2:08 but a country having it's capital in a remote area of the country/away from main tourist towns brings prosperity to an otherwise unprosperous region
@@albertromansky9501 What i mean is, Ireland also claims northen Ireland as part of Ireland so in a sense the perfect capital is at the center of the island. Also if you decide to make video about koreas, try to find where the Capital should be if they are United.
We've already tried this idea of putting capitals in geographic centers. The vast majority of US state capitals were designed this way. The result? Most are incredibly boring, undynamic cities with low economic activity that are regarded as bad or uninteresting places to live.
Cottbus population - 93,926 while #100 german city 103,000 However, this does not have a significant impact on the calculation of the population center. Even for the top 300 cities, the result will be approximately the same
Олександрія - це справді досить затишне місто. Я чув, шо воно в нас стало першим містом з населенням менше 100 тисяч осіб, де відкрився МакДональдс. Що, вже тягне на столичні абміції?)
@@albertromansky9501 I previously commented a source for Austria-Hungary's census data, but it seems it got filtered out. Is there a way I could send it to you?
I'm always a fan of countries building their capitals from scratch, as they can be more strategically located, for example saint petersburg or washinton dc
Btw, with the claim that St. Petersburg was built from scratch is not that simple. There was a town called Nyen, the capital of Swedish Ingria. The town was destroyed in the war, and what remained was demolished, the materials being used for building the centre of St. Petersburg exactly to the opposite side of the Neva river.
Athens is at the geographical center of Greece, so it makes a perfect choice, although personally I would be more than happy to move the capital a little bit to the north!
In case of Germany, Hanover is a 500k city (medium size). Hanover was the capital of the country of Hanover before the German empire, and it is now the capital of Niedersachen (state).
Actually Denmark also used to own Scania so the case of an "eastern" Capital also to a lesser extend applies (dont forget Austria when they are Austria-Hungary)
Could you do the same thing for the Middle East or even Asia more broadly? If you do, remember to count Israeli settlements in the West Bank towards Israel's population center and not Palestine's. The issue of sovereignty is fortunately moot here, since it's clear which cities look towards which country.
I use the official UN map. Since I am not in the context of territorial disputes between countries, this will be the most correct map that I should use.
@@albertromansky9501My point is that in the specific case of Israel, it's absurd to count West Bank settlements towards a Palestinian state. If you're pro-Palestine, the settlements shouldn't exist; if you're pro-Israel, they should be part of Israel. Literally nobody wants the West Bank settlements to continue existing, just under a Palestinian state. The settlements should either be counted towards Israel (if it's practical capital-placing advice), or shouldn't be counted at all (if it's a thought exercise following internationally recognized borders).
*NO, BERLIN FOR GERMANY, because it is closer to the old historic capital of Königsberg, the capital of PREUẞEN!!!* Prussia historically is the most important German kingdom!!!
Perfect capital for Germany would have been Frankfurt. It's very much where most of the people live (Rhein-Main-Area), it's the financial centre (the DAX Stock Exchange is there as well as most of the big banks) and where the money is, there's the power and it's also the most important infrastructural centre with the largest airport and train station there. The only downside is the high criminality rate, but it's not much higher than in Berlin, so it won't make much of a difference.
I would love it for Catalonia region lol, to see the impact of Barcelona, as it is a case similar to ireland but Catalonia has a triangular shape instead
I would say the story behind Sofia being a capital is an interesting and charming one, yet a little upsetting. Apparently, Sofia was picked as a capital after Bulgaria's liberation from The Ottoman Empire in 1878 as it was in the center of the Bulgarians' national border. Meaning, it was picked so it could help unify the Bulgarians in what is now North Macedonia into the Bulgarian independent state 🇧🇬❤️
You absolutely ignore geography....... 80% of Slovakia are mountains and the biggest mountain ranges are in Central Slovakia. So it is impossible to have the capital in Banská Bystrica in the center of mountains. The highest population density is in the southwest of the country and there is also the Danube river, which is historically the biggest traffic artery. Bratislava (or Pressburg, or Poszony) was historically the biggest city in Slovakia and also the biggest economic heart. Banská Bystrica is located in the center of the country, but it is only local townlet with population less than 80k. Tourists use the city like the center for hiking or skiing, but not as the center of the country. Also the second biggest city Košice is not in the center of the country. It is on the east, because there is the second highest population density.
Being a brazilian, its strange to me when countries have the largest and most populous city as their capital. For me, a capital should have a more administrative function, and not be the economic center of the country. That said, I think a good capital would be a city with a mid-high importance that is close to the population density center of the country.
Yeah, London is too large in comparison to other UK cities and historically has huge impact. But Birmingham also great option as possible capital of UK
Would be interesting to see Turkey in this. Since İstanbul has almost 20 Million residents out of 80 Million total country population. Yet the capital is Ankara, which is geographically very central but 'only' has around 6 Million residents. My guess is that the "perfect" capital would be somewhere near Eskişehir or Bilecik? Pity, it wasn't dealt with in the video. But still very intriguing work, thank you!
Just reminder to Subscribe:
th-cam.com/channels/N-kMJaYSkP5dHjSiPSzCAQ.html
As a Polish person
Literally every Pole outside of Łódź will tell you to stay the hell away from there
True
I LIVE NEAR ŁÓDŹ AND WAS BORN IN ŁÓDŹ. ŁÓDŹ IS SCARY
@@Nayorxchii współczuję ci.
Łódź is the most underrated city in Poland. Not because it's that great, but because it's nowhere nearly as bad, as most people make it out to be.
@@Artur_M. exactly, I live here all my life, what is bad about Łódź? You have to be a total wussy to be scared of Łódź. I can walk most of the neighbourhoods middle of the night no problem. No incidents.
capitals are historic cities that are chosen for a reason
Warsaw was actually chosen to be a capital of Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth because it was located near the population center of a country back then.
Well, Berlin isn't anymore the historical city it used to be, just a modern shithole nowadays.
How about Istanbul
@@FodaseNaoLigo Warsaw was way closer to ukraine lithuania courland and other polish territories while krakow was far away from literally everything
Doesn't mean that someone can't make a video about a better capital.
Population center doesn't automatically mean it's the ideal position for a capital. There are many more factors that need to be considered, like infrastructure, access to the sea/major rivers, proximity to other countries (e.g. Dublin facing the UK)/major cities (e.g. Helsinki and Tallinn), cultural and historical significance (e.g. Berlin, Warsaw) or just being the biggest city of a country (most of them).
This is an interesting vosualization, but I think it would be more honest if it was just presented as "these are the population centers of different countries", instead of trying to determine entire capitals based on a single metric.
Thank you for the extensive feedback.
I agree with the title of the video. But if its title was just "these are the population centers of different countries", no one would watch it. Unfortunately, this is how it works.
As for the theses about capitals.
There are many cases when the capital of a country was moved from the largest city to a smaller one, but inland (Pakistan, Turkey, Brazil, Kazakhstan, etc. I have another video about this). And after the relocation, the new capitals began to grow rapidly, and perhaps in 50-100 years they will become the largest in their countries.
By this I mean that the current capitals are the largest cities precisely because of the capital factor.
@@albertromansky9501 haha thats exactly why I clicked on the video, good job
😉
@@albertromansky9501that's also what Indonesia is doing - building a new capital in the centre of the country, partly to make administration easier and partly to move the population from Jakarta to somewhere else to prevent overpopulation in the former
@@albertromansky9501 To be fair, Turkey moved it's capital from Konstantinopole to Ankara to not be seen as a continuation of the Ottoman Empire, Brasilia was build to fight overpopulation in Rio de Janeiro (which failed). For Kazakhstan I couldn't find a reason, but it was under Nursultan, so I think it was just him wanting to move it for no reason. Pakistan moved it's capital to promote development in other parts of the country, and not just in Karachi. None of those cities have any realistic perspectives of becoming the biggest cities in their countries
For Germany, Berlin used to be center of Germany, until they lost land to Poland
xddddd cry
@@V4LCZAKwhat is the problem?
@@V4LCZAK zachowuj sie. przynosisz wstyd polakom w internecie
given back not lost
@@Adixeeel the germans used to rule the area 'til the slavic expansion, northwest of Germany used to have slavic culture until it was destroyed/removed by germans and conquered the area again (well your technically correct but the Germans is the first to own the land)
(any correction?)
I have to disagree about the capital being in the centre of the country.
A good example is New Delhi. New Delhi was known in ancient times as Indraprastha, and this city was located east of the Sutlej and Ghaggar rivers and west of the Yamuna river.
The rivers to the west of Delhi (Indus river system) flow westward into the Arabian sea, while those in the east flow eastward into the Bay of Bengal. Due to this, the city of Indraprastha connects the Indus and Ganges river systems.
To add to that, it is strategically located close to the Thar Desert, Chambal River (eastern Rajasthan and Western Madhya Pradesh) and Narmada River basin (Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh) in the centre of India.
This even connects to the coasts of South India, since the rivers of both Indus and Ganges systems can connect to the open seas.
So eventhough Delhi is not in the centre of the country, it is the passageway between the 2 river systems. Due to this it is arguably the best place to have a capital.
Streetshitters 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
India ain't got no access to the indus
@@hpgamesr3777
You're right, Delhi is the ideal historical capital of India due to the connection between the two river systems. That being said, the Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and Ghaggar have lowland river streams that are well within India and the Sutlej-Yamuna canal works to connect Indian Punjab to Delhi.
@@SaadBinAlamgir3345 Shutup bangladeshi cuck, don't forget the roots of your forefathers.
@@SaadBinAlamgir3345the call is coming from the house
Łódź actually was supposed to be the capital of Poland shortly after World War II due to Warsaw being completely destroyed, but this idea has been abandoned
I think it would have worked out well and would be useful, not only because it's in the centre. 😊
0:21 Germany circa 150 years ago is a much more different place, with 5 more big Eastern cities, Posen, Danzig, Königsberg, Breslau and Kattowitz
*Poznań, Gdańsk, Kaliningrad, Wrocław, and Katowice now
@@lunalingo4461Królewiec a nie Kaliningrad
@@lunalingo4461At that time their name was in German, he isn't trying to deny they are Polish now
@lunalingo4461 ik
@@waria3982 soon... they shall be Königsberg/Krolewiec
A german here. To answer your question (1:33) - no, Hannover is not a good option for the capital. The city is justifiably known as the most boring of all major cities and since even now we have a reputation of rather dull people, I wouldn't enforce it further.
Furthermore Hannover is not ready to be a major city, the City Center was totally destroyed in WW2 but not rebuild, and outside of it you either have abandoned Industry, Low Income Blocks and lowrise housing
It's probably the most carcentric and American Style City in Germany
Boring cities usually are capitals....come to Canada and Ottawa, the town that fun forgot.
@@marklittle8805 Outside of the anglosphere not really (yes for Canada,USA,Australia and New Zealand, No for almost everyone else)
i swear if luxembourg's population center is not near luxembourg
What about the Vatican?
@mikefraser4513 rome
Luxembourger here. I first got your comment wrong. You are right! The upper third of Luxembourg, called "Oesling/Éislek" only has a population of about 80,000, a seventh of the total population, while two thirds of the coutry's population live south or just around the capital. This is due to historical reasons (the south had iron ore, and thus was industialised first), and geographical reasons: The Oesling is part of the Ardennes, a very hilly region.
The capital city is mostly decided because of historical reasons. Being central is good but it's not crucial. Also it doesn't need to be the largest city.
He was wrong about Switzerland. Bern is only Seat of Government. We don't have a Capital. Problem solved.
Berlin was the capital of Prussia, the country that merged with other German speaking states to form Germany in the 1800s.
Fun fact Kaunas was Lithuanias Capital in the interwar period.
ye but they always claimed Wilno/Vilnius as their capital
@@lunalingo4461Lithuania and Belarus both wanted to declare it their capital, but it was occupied by the poles and in 1939 Soviet army occupied Poland and used the city of Vilnius as a bait for Lithuania, they have territory to Lithuania when Lithuania allowed to place the Soviet army on its territory and that Soviet Union just occupied it and made it a new Soviet Republic
@@eternakrokodilanto5263”occupied” XD majority of Vilnus population we’re Polish and even today 20% of Vilnus population is Polish and in counties around Vilnus this number is much higher close to 80%
@ Vilnius is still Kryvian Mekka, the population wasn’t polish more polonised Belarusians and many Belarusian writers, poets and politicians lived there
@@eternakrokodilanto5263 polonised Belarusians means they we`re Polish
Country: I'm about to win this!!!
2nd largest city: oh no you don't
Only after this comment I have realised that it's really common case.
Latvia, Belarus were mentioned in video. Additionally, Hungary, Portugal, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Croatia would be higher in ranking without their second largest cities. It's sound like great idea for new video 🙂
I was honestly expecting croatias population center being outside of croatia, just like its geographical center
There are two countries in the world with population centre outside. I'll show them in the next part. Subscribe 🙂
@@albertromansky9501 must be israel
It would be interesting to see bigger countries like USA, Russia, China
China has 3 perfect candidates. Xi’An, Chongqing and Chengdu.
For Russia there 2 possibilities(3if we exclude Siberia). Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk [and Yekaterinburg].
St. Louis or Denver for US.
But population-wise, maybe Nanjing or Wuhan is perfect for china
You were close about the US.
Probably the centre of the population will be closer to Oklahoma, because the southern states like California, Texas, Florida have a super heavy impact
@@albertromansky9501 China's current population centroid is in Henan province, and the biggest city in this province is Zhengzhou. Would this be a good capital for the country?
I will make a new video about Asia. If I'm not mistaken, the center of the Chinese population is closer to the city of Wuhan
I love how the video shows how prague is the perfect capital for... Bohemia
Kaunas used to be the capital of Lithuania
Wasn't Madrid literally founded in that location to be closest to the capital if the former smaller kingdoms?
Living in Germany for a few months I feel that the ideal capital location-wise would be Frankfurt. It’s about equally away from the huge conglomerate of the Ruhrgebiet, the populated Berlin, the big cities of the North as well as close to Bayern and Munich. Hannover would also be a very good option considering it’s equally distant from Berlin, Hamburg and Nordrhein-Westfalen, but the existence of the airport in Frankfurt makes it more of a hub in my eyes.
yes bro you stole that off my tongue 😭
ye but I have heard that its a really shtty place to live tho
@@lunalingo4461 Because of Migrants
Please do it for countries that have relocated their capitals (or plan to), to see if it was reasonable. For example Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Egypt, South Korea etc.
Thank you for your comment. I didn't know that South Korea was planning to change its capital.
I'll tell you briefly about other countries, more details will be in the video.
Kazakhstan. The new capital is closer to the center of the population. But Astana is not the best option.
Indonesia. Jakarta is planned to be relieved of traffic and population. The new capital should be on the island of Borneo, which is as far from the population center as the island of Java.
Egypt. Cairo now has one of the most optimal locations in terms of population center among all countries in the world. Therefore, the transfer of the capital is due to the same reasons as for Jakarta
Copenhagen used to be the center of Denmark when it still held parts of Southern Sweden
Interesting, where would be the center population of the Scandinavian countries. I guess near by Göteborg. I should definitely to make similar video about that
2:30 in fact, it used to be the capital of Lithuania during the interwar (1918-1940) because Poland controlled Vilnius/Wilno
Owned, not controlled. It was legally theirs.
@@sharavy6851Yeah "legally" by breaking the agreement
I'd love to see a video like this for South American countries!
Honestly Brașov really fits as a capital but it makes sense why it isn't the capital(look at history and geography)
Łódź as a capital of Poland💀
Brother would choose Detroit for USA😭
Become human
I don’t see why the criteria for a good capital is limited to the center of population. Cities like Vienna and Paris have much more historical precedent for capital and are the historic and current economic and cultural hub for the entire nation. I suppose it wouldn’t be a completely wild idea for Berlin ever since they destroyed Prussia, but Hannover has next to no claim at all to hold such an honor, I’d say Nürnberg or Mainz before them. Overall, I don’t like the idea of changing a capital for this reason.
This video is for informative purposes only.
Paris and Vienna are undoubtedly the best options for their respective countries. Because there are no other choices.
But still, the location in relation to the centre of the population makes sense. It may not be the most important aspect. But I believe that the journey to the capital should be the shortest and most convenient for the maximum number of residents of this country
@@albertromansky9501 during unification, what is today East Germany was in the central part of Germany, with Western Poland and Kaliningrad once being the real East Germany
@@albertromansky9501 I think that factor was a lot more relevant before the inventions of instant communications and the jet engine. With the exception of only the largest few countries, air travel makes the time penalty of a non-equidistant capital pretty negligible. Plus, what reason do most people even need for having rapid access to the capital city itself? In the modern world, unless you're being hauled before congress/parliament to testify, what bureaucratic government function would there be for you to need to be physically in the capital?
Yeah, at 6:59 I explain why Berlin is located so eastward
@@oooshafiqooo and Klaipėda
Estonia could be an example how such an "issue" cannot be solved with a calculator. The location is moved just 60 km, but it's enough to turn the offered location into a nonsense. It hits the area of forests and bogs, the biggest settlement around is Aravete (around 700). Moreover, building a settlement big enough for the needs of a capital would be really problematic, as there would be nearly no other water sources available than groundwater. And, building the new network of roads with needed capacity would not just cost a fortune, but would destroy a lot of nature as well.
This method is just like a hint. So if country's center population is far away from capital city, you should find the answer in the history or geographical reasons. I'll be clearly shown in the next part about Americas countries
true, I have nothing else to add, perfect
There is actually an official calculation for Finland that includes the entire population and not just settlements. And it's located a bit closer to Helsinki than your calculation at exactly 100 kilometers from the city next to the village of Eteläinen (fittingly translated as Southern). The point has been moving south every year since the first calculation in the 80s. I would link it here but I'm not sure if TH-cam will allow it.
Not a fun but pretty interesting fact. Since Ukraine got it's independence and it's population started decreasing a bit later the population center started moving west after hundreds of years of moving to the east. With the russia starting war on Donbas and waging new agressive war millions of people fled to the western cities and it seems like population centre today might be significantly more further west
Yeah, that's sad truth 😔
3:46 So Prague is the perfect center for Bohemia
Yeah, that's true.
I didn't mention it in video, because i was sure that my viewers would notice it on their own 👍
Alice Springs, anyone?
*Here is the summary of the new capitals:*
Germany: Hannover
Slovakia: Banska Bystrica
Bulgaria: Burgas/Varna
Lithuania: Kaunas
France: Bourges
Ukraine: Oleksandria
Czech Republic: Brno, Ostrava
Finland: Tampere
Estonia: Tartu
Romania: Brasov
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Zenica
Poland: Lodz
Switzerland: Lucern
Netherlands: Utrecht
Ireland: Wicklow
Italy: Naples, Bari, Palermo
Belarus: Homel
Latvia: Daugavipils
they werent “chosen” by this guy. he just noted that they changed where the center would be or are close to the population center.
@@notmeowth Ok
Bulgaria, Czechia, Italy, Belarus and Latvia are wrong. Those cities pulled population away from capital today, but they are not near population centres.
7:00 wtf is this map 😭🙏
Besides that really cool video
ww1 + ww2 = ww½
Sooooo this is WW½ map
I was thinking the same thing, but after looking at it, this feels like an interwar map, shortly after the Treaty of Versailles, but before the Memelland was taken from Germany and given to Lithuania, Posen and West Prussia were given to Poland, and the Silesian "Uprisings". Not to mention before Austria-Hungary was officially dissolved
@@kentrosaurusboi3909 polish eastern borders that are shown on that map were made in 1921 after the treaty of Riga, so europe never looked like that
@zero_balfour That's true, after looking at it again, and the Baltic countries non-existence tells me that this map doesn't line up time wise, so "wtf is this map" actually works here
I wonder, what would be the population center of the old Yugoslavia exactly?
To the author of the video, please look up Łódź Bałuty or just memes about Łódź
Could you do a similar video on US state capitals, and the US capital itself?
Americas countries will be in the next part soon. Turn on the bell 🔔
This is a paradox. Because a significant number of people would move to the country's capital for opportunities and other things, shifting the population center drastically. But if thr original city was not the capital, the population center would not be there
Yes, it's like an age-old question: which came first, the chicken or the egg?
prędzej bym się zabił niż pozwolił na to by łódź była stolicą 🙏
Finland is NOT Scandinavia 🤦🏻♂️
This is a very interesting concept. I would like to know the population center of countries such as the United States, Russia and China, this could also get extended to continents and maybe even the whole world.
Thanks 😊
Next part with other countries will soon.
For European center population I posted similar video 2 y ago. Pls check my channel
@@albertromansky9501Thank you, that video was surprising, I thought it would have been more eastern. I wonder if you can run the algorithm using only cities in the European union
Maybe I'll do a shorts video about EU
In Spain a lot of people think that Madrid shouldn,t be the capital (neither today nor historically) but when you look into the hard facts, it is revealed that it makes too much sense to have it there, and that today, back in the day it was even more useful as it meant that it was unsiegable due to being protected by the whole rest of the country and the multiple mountain ranges, the only foreign army that ocuppied Madrid was that of Napoleon, and that happened only because he attacked from the inside of the country.
Ok, it's very small so I accept a lack of Luxembourg, Liechtenstein etc. But where is Iceland?
Iceland has few settlements with more than 5000 inhabitants. Obviously, the population center will be very close to Reykjavik, which has more than 100,000 inhabitants
I wonder where Montenegro, Kosovo, Russia and other countries who weren't included are currently...
Nice!
7:00 Wtf is this map? Austria-Hungary didn't exist alongside interwar Poland and the Russian Empire was already gone by now, where did you get that terrible map?
Please make one of the America's
Already done. Check my last video 🙌
Bonn knocking the door.
Fun fact is that if Lithuania will return it's capital to Kowna and hand Vilno to Belarus (in case lithuanians would leave this place and belarusians from big cities would move in) those 2 would be the winners on this list as well as this will undo one of the most strange (yet absolutely plain) political decissions of 20th century (it's strange because city was populated by poles/belarusians mostly when lithuanians was a minority here before the city was given to them).
I'd love to see this but for US states!
Next part will soon. Subscribe and turn on the bell 🔔
@albertromansky9501 Okay, I subscribed!
What about the vatican? I'm very curious as to where it would rank
If St Peter's Basilica is considered the capital of the Vatican, then perhaps the Vatican would be next to Belgium in this video.
But first of all, you need to figure out where exactly the resident population of the Vatican lives
Or other European microstates. Greetings from Finland! Terveisiä Suomesta!
What is your opinion of the city of Tampere? Apart from Helsinki, is it a good option for the capital of Finland?
What app is this?
Do some about South and North America. Would like to know about Brasil and Mexico
South and North America will be in the next part. Subscribe and turn on the bell
Utretch was the Dutch capital once I think, maybe Swiss capital was Lucerne once too but unsure.
Fun video, thanks
I think Athens should be higher but you can't count the importance of being a port at the center that can control all the Aegean Islands, whcih make the heart of Greece. Athens combines mainland and Island greece perfectly.
Very nice video, but you should find an AI with better pronunciation of city names. Also, it would be cool if you included all the countries of Europe. Even if they are small, the size shouldn't have a significant impact on the percentage value.
If you had problems with the pronunciation of Nice (🇫🇷), I'd *really* love to see how you manage with Cymru (🏴), where the village of Cwmystwyth, Ceredigion is the closest to a geographical centre. The nearest railway station would be Pont ar Fynach .... but since this is the upper terminus of a 60cm gauge tourist railway, with no direct service to any of several hundred more populous settlements, probably wouldn't be the best choice.
I wonder which Icelandic 🇮🇸 volcano would get your vote to serve as capital (nearly the entire population lives on the coast)?
Greetings from the suburbs of Hannover. Hannover would indeed be a good option. Hannover has no slogan, no motto, nothing special but THE high german accent.
It's still called "High" German (Hochdeutsch) even though Hannover is quite flat!
Even after all these centuries, though, the official spelling remains that of Meissen (which is rocky enough) because that's where Martin Luther wrote the first German Bible.
*ROME* should've been in first position.
What abt All the Small states? Luxembourg?
2:08 but a country having it's capital in a remote area of the country/away from main tourist towns brings prosperity to an otherwise unprosperous region
For Ireland case, try to include northern Ireland
It would be like center population of island of Ireland. Maybe I'll do it in next parts
@@albertromansky9501 What i mean is, Ireland also claims northen Ireland as part of Ireland so in a sense the perfect capital is at the center of the island. Also if you decide to make video about koreas, try to find where the Capital should be if they are United.
We've already tried this idea of putting capitals in geographic centers. The vast majority of US state capitals were designed this way.
The result? Most are incredibly boring, undynamic cities with low economic activity that are regarded as bad or uninteresting places to live.
Łódź is like worst city you could have chosen
I think Estonia’s capital location doesn’t really matter because you could reach it from any part of the county’s mainland in like 2 hours max
Ideal capital of Portugal is Coimbra
You deserve more bro keep up the good work
Cool vid
Cottbus is also east of Berlin and within the top 100 cities. Cool idea, though!
Cottbus population - 93,926 while #100 german city 103,000
However, this does not have a significant impact on the calculation of the population center. Even for the top 300 cities, the result will be approximately the same
@albertromansky9501 That can't be right, as of 2023 Cottbus is the 83rd largest city, slightly over 100.000 :) but it used to be below this numbee
Олександрія - це справді досить затишне місто. Я чув, шо воно в нас стало першим містом з населенням менше 100 тисяч осіб, де відкрився МакДональдс. Що, вже тягне на столичні абміції?)
Capital with perfect location, is: Madrid (Spain)
Great video! Would you do this with pre-WW1 Europe too?
Oh, that's going to be tough. I have to find a detailed dataset with the population of European cities 100 years ago
It would be interesting go to see how well Berlin, Warsaw and Vienna were located in Prussia, Austria-Hungary and prewar Poland@@albertromansky9501
If I can get true information about the population of the cities of that time, I will make an additional video. Its interesting to me too
@@albertromansky9501 I previously commented a source for Austria-Hungary's census data, but it seems it got filtered out. Is there a way I could send it to you?
Yes, you may send it to my email
albertromansky@gmail.com
You anger all europe with this one
I'm always a fan of countries building their capitals from scratch, as they can be more strategically located, for example saint petersburg or washinton dc
Btw, with the claim that St. Petersburg was built from scratch is not that simple. There was a town called Nyen, the capital of Swedish Ingria. The town was destroyed in the war, and what remained was demolished, the materials being used for building the centre of St. Petersburg exactly to the opposite side of the Neva river.
Athens is at the geographical center of Greece, so it makes a perfect choice, although personally I would be more than happy to move the capital a little bit to the north!
In case of Germany, Hanover is a 500k city (medium size). Hanover was the capital of the country of Hanover before the German empire, and it is now the capital of Niedersachen (state).
Actually Denmark also used to own Scania so the case of an "eastern" Capital also to a lesser extend applies (dont forget Austria when they are Austria-Hungary)
Interesting about Scania center population. I think it will be nearly to Göteborg city
Warsaw is already quite a centralised capital, despite being culturally in the East if the country
Back in the day it was pretty western
Madrid is perfectly placed
Can you make the same video about Russia ? Its very interesting cause Russia is big
Could you do the same thing for the Middle East or even Asia more broadly?
If you do, remember to count Israeli settlements in the West Bank towards Israel's population center and not Palestine's. The issue of sovereignty is fortunately moot here, since it's clear which cities look towards which country.
I use the official UN map.
Since I am not in the context of territorial disputes between countries, this will be the most correct map that I should use.
@@albertromansky9501My point is that in the specific case of Israel, it's absurd to count West Bank settlements towards a Palestinian state. If you're pro-Palestine, the settlements shouldn't exist; if you're pro-Israel, they should be part of Israel. Literally nobody wants the West Bank settlements to continue existing, just under a Palestinian state. The settlements should either be counted towards Israel (if it's practical capital-placing advice), or shouldn't be counted at all (if it's a thought exercise following internationally recognized borders).
*NO, BERLIN FOR GERMANY, because it is closer to the old historic capital of Königsberg, the capital of PREUẞEN!!!* Prussia historically is the most important German kingdom!!!
Ja!
Prussia was Baltic.
@z0lcsi1 Shit was blue.
Perfect capital for Germany would have been Frankfurt. It's very much where most of the people live (Rhein-Main-Area), it's the financial centre (the DAX Stock Exchange is there as well as most of the big banks) and where the money is, there's the power and it's also the most important infrastructural centre with the largest airport and train station there. The only downside is the high criminality rate, but it's not much higher than in Berlin, so it won't make much of a difference.
I would love it for Catalonia region lol, to see the impact of Barcelona, as it is a case similar to ireland but Catalonia has a triangular shape instead
Hannover nowdays would make a lot of sense and would work well yes
I personally think all capitals of every country are good
I would say the story behind Sofia being a capital is an interesting and charming one, yet a little upsetting. Apparently, Sofia was picked as a capital after Bulgaria's liberation from The Ottoman Empire in 1878 as it was in the center of the Bulgarians' national border. Meaning, it was picked so it could help unify the Bulgarians in what is now North Macedonia into the Bulgarian independent state 🇧🇬❤️
Make Bratislava a region independent of Slovakia, I don't wanna bear this country's bs anymore
you should do asia and oceania next
You absolutely ignore geography....... 80% of Slovakia are mountains and the biggest mountain ranges are in Central Slovakia. So it is impossible to have the capital in Banská Bystrica in the center of mountains. The highest population density is in the southwest of the country and there is also the Danube river, which is historically the biggest traffic artery. Bratislava (or Pressburg, or Poszony) was historically the biggest city in Slovakia and also the biggest economic heart. Banská Bystrica is located in the center of the country, but it is only local townlet with population less than 80k. Tourists use the city like the center for hiking or skiing, but not as the center of the country. Also the second biggest city Košice is not in the center of the country. It is on the east, because there is the second highest population density.
I've mentioned Banska Bystrica as nearest city to the population centroid of Slovakia. Obviously It was not clear option for the capital city
Capital not chosen because of the distances , they are chosen to assimilate population and fight against neighbors
Being a brazilian, its strange to me when countries have the largest and most populous city as their capital. For me, a capital should have a more administrative function, and not be the economic center of the country. That said, I think a good capital would be a city with a mid-high importance that is close to the population density center of the country.
FRENCH GUINEA: be quite and he won't hear me
London is the only option for the UK
Yeah, London is too large in comparison to other UK cities and historically has huge impact. But Birmingham also great option as possible capital of UK
Would be interesting to see Turkey in this. Since İstanbul has almost 20 Million residents out of 80 Million total country population. Yet the capital is Ankara, which is geographically very central but 'only' has around 6 Million residents. My guess is that the "perfect" capital would be somewhere near Eskişehir or Bilecik? Pity, it wasn't dealt with in the video. But still very intriguing work, thank you!
I'll show Turkey in the next parts. Subs and turn on the bell 🔔
NO, NOT ŁÓDŹ. I LIVE NEAR ŁÓDŹ AND IT WOULD BE A HELLHOLE. ŁÓDŹ IS TERRIBLE
as a dutch person, the only issue with making Utrecht the capital is that it serves no large political, economic or touristic purpose lol
Which city could be a good option for a capital of Netherlands, except Rotterdam and Amsterdam?
I think at that point only The Hague remains as the right option as it has most governmental institutions, sort of a centre of political power
Iceland would kill this ranking
you forgot multiple nations. but still an interesting video
Multiple nations? What do you mean?