Africa •
Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia - capital of the
region of
Oromia (in addition to being the national capital city), itself an independently governed chartered city that is not part of Oromia.
Adama, located within the Oromia region, served as its capital between 2000 and 2005. •
East London,
South Africa – administrative centre of the
Amathole District Municipality, itself in the
Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality •
Francistown,
Botswana – capital of the
North-East District, itself a separately administered urban district. •
Gqeberha,
South Africa – administrative centre of the
Cacadu District Municipality, itself in the
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality Americas •
Bogotá,
Colombia – capital of the surrounding
Cundinamarca Department, while constituting its own capital district. •
Hot Springs,
South Dakota,
United States – seat of
Fall River County, whose administration is under contract from neighbouring
Oglala Lakota County to also perform the latter's administrative functions. •
King Salmon, Alaska,
United States – seat of government for the
Lake and Peninsula Borough but lies in the
Bristol Bay Borough. •
Alberta,
Canada - More than half of Alberta's 63
municipal districts are administered from a separate municipality, often an incorporated city, town, or village surrounded by, but administratively-separate from, the municipal district itself. •
London,
Ontario,
Canada - seat of
Middlesex County, itself an independent city. •
Ontario,
Canada - since the municipal restructuring of the 1990s, many of the remaining two-tier counties are administered from separated municipalities that are no longer included within the county; for example, the seat of
Wellington County is in
Guelph. •
Paramaribo,
Suriname – the vast and sparsely populated
Sipaliwini District in the South of the country does not have a capital, and is administered from a distance directly by the central government, in the national capital city of Paramaribo on the coast. Paramaribo does not even border the Sipaliwini District. •
Recife,
Brazil – seat of the administration of the
Fernando de Noronha islands. The
Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha is a unique case in Brazil of a state district, not part of any municipality and administered directly by the government of the
state of
Pernambuco. The administrative offices are located in the state capital city of Recife, on the mainland, away from the islands. •
Thessalon,
Ontario,
Canada – seat of
Cockburn Island township, itself a separate municipality on the mainland. Cockburn Island, in
Lake Huron, has no longer any permanent population, yet it is still legally incorporated as a township of the
province of Ontario, with the administrative offices located in Thessalon. •
Virginia in the
United States – has unique laws regarding
independent city status, where a city is not part of its surrounding county. Because of this, many county courthouses and county government offices are technically located outside of the county. These include
Albemarle County,
Alleghany County,
Augusta County,
Frederick County,
Greensville County,
Prince William County,
Rockbridge County, and
Rockingham County. The government offices for
Roanoke County,
James City County, and
Henrico County are located within the borders of the county while the historic courthouses are located in the independent cities of
Salem,
Williamsburg, and
Richmond, respectively. In
Fairfax County, the courthouse is situated in an enclave within the city of
Fairfax, which is an independent city that is itself an enclave within Fairfax County. This is a rare example of a
counter-enclave. The county's government offices are outside of the City of Fairfax's borders. •
Winner,
South Dakota, United States – seat of both
Tripp and
Todd counties, itself located in Tripp County.
Asia •
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan – capital of
Chüy Region which surrounds the city, though the city itself is not part of the region but rather a region-level unit of Kyrgyzstan •
Central,
Hong Kong – the area where the district council and district office of the
Islands District is located, itself within the
Central and Western District •
Chandigarh,
India – shared capital of the
states of
Punjab and
Haryana, itself a
union territory • Fort Pikit,
Malidegao,
Philippines – the
barangay which serves as the site of the municipal hall of
Pikit in
Cotabato province. The barangay was previously part of Pikit, until the creation of
Malidegao in 2024. •
Ishigaki,
Japan – government seat both of the
Yaeyama District of
Okinawa Prefecture, and of the town of
Taketomi, located in that district. Ishigaki itself is a city, outside any district and with its own separate administration. •
Jiagedaqi District,
China – administrative centre of the
Da Hinggan Ling Prefecture,
Heilongjiang Province, itself (nominally) located in
Inner Mongolia. •
Kagoshima,
Japan – hosts the municipal offices for the island villages of
Mishima and
Toshima. •
Lankaran,
Azerbaijan – capital of
Lankaran Rayon, itself administratively separate • Several provinces of the
Philippines technically have their capitals outside their borders when the cities are classified as highly urbanized (independent); by law these cities are not included in any province, although most of the time these cities are tightly connected and were sometimes once part of the province that surrounds them. See
cities of the Philippines for a more extensive explanation and the Virginia entry above for a comparison. •
Saipan,
Northern Mariana Islands – seat of the mayor office of the largely evacuated
Northern Islands Municipality, itself another municipality •
Shaki,
Azerbaijan – capital of
Shaki Rayon, itself administratively separate •
Shusha,
Azerbaijan – capital of
Shusha Rayon, itself administratively separate •
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan – capital of
Tashkent Province, itself an independent city •
Yevlakh,
Azerbaijan – capital of
Yevlakh Rayon, itself administratively separate •
Ongjin County, Incheon - County office located in
Michuhol District because county is composed entirely of islands.
Europe •
Aberdeen,
Scotland,
United Kingdom – Aberdeen was the historic
county town of
Aberdeenshire but now forms a separate
local authority.
Aberdeenshire Council's headquarters remain within the city of Aberdeen, the only local authority in Scotland to have its council sit in another local authority area. •
Abingdon-on-Thames,
England,
United Kingdom – Since 2014, the
district councils of
South Oxfordshire and
Vale of White Horse have been located in the same headquarters. In 2014, the
Vale of White Horse District Council moved into the headquarters of the
South Oxfordshire District Council in
Crowmarsh Gifford, South Oxfordshire. In 2015, due to a fire, both councils moved to
Milton, Vale of White Horse. In 2022, both councils temporarily moved to Abingdon, Vale of White Horse, intending to move together to a new headquarters in
Didcot, South Oxfordshire, initially planned to be completed in 2023. •
Alkmaar,
Netherlands – Alkmaar is the seat of the municipality of
Bergen, of which it is not a part • In
Austria, most of the so-called
Statutarstädte (statutory cities), which are independent cities not part of any
district, are the seats of their surrounding districts. The statutory cities for which this is the case are
Eisenstadt,
Graz,
Innsbruck,
Klagenfurt am Wörthersee,
Krems an der Donau,
Linz,
Sankt Pölten,
Steyr,
Villach,
Wels and
Wiener Neustadt. The city of Linz is the seat of two districts,
Linz-Land and
Urfahr-Umgebung, the latter of which used to have its seat at the town of
Urfahr, which became a borough of Linz. •
Brussels,
Belgium – Brussels is the capital of the
Flanders region, while itself being part of the
Brussels Capital Region •
Bucharest,
Romania – capital of
Ilfov County, itself a
municipality with special status •
Budapest,
Hungary – capital of
Pest county, and also the
Central Hungarian Region, itself having a county status, thus outside Pest county, but within the Central Hungarian Region • In
Germany, several rural
Kreise (districts of a
state) have their capitals in larger nearby cities that have their own separate administration (being self governing cities that have both
Kreis and city level functions) and are not part of the usually homonymous rural
Kreis. Some examples are
Karlsruhe,
Offenbach,
Kaiserslautern,
Munich,
Kassel, and
Osnabrück, but there are many other cases. •
Grieskirchen,
Austria, is the seat of both districts of
Eferding and
Grieskirchen, which share one district commission. •
Ipswich,
England,
United Kingdom, itself a non-metropolitan district, serves as the administrative centre for the neighbouring districts of
Babergh and
Mid Suffolk. •
Košice,
Slovakia - administrative center of
Košice-okolie District, itself divided into four separate districts:
Košice I,
Košice II,
Košice III, and
Košice IV •
Kyiv,
Ukraine – administrative center of
Kyiv Oblast, itself a
city with special status •
Lyon,
France – capital of the
Rhône department, though itself the bulk of the administratively separate
Lyon Metropolis since 2015 •
Minsk,
Belarus – administrative center of
Minsk Region, itself a
city with special status of capital •
Moscow,
Russia – capital of
Moscow Oblast, itself a
federal city •
Oslo,
Norway – administration headquarters of
Akershus county, itself a separate county •
Piraeus,
Greece - headquarters of the
Decentralized Administration of the Aegean, which comprises most islands in the
Aegean Sea, but itself located on the mainland, in the
Decentralized Administration of Attica. •
Prague,
Czech Republic – capital of
Central Bohemian Region,
Prague-West District and
Prague-East District, itself an administrative unit on its own •
Sofia,
Bulgaria – capital of the
Sofia Province, itself an administrative unit (
oblast) on its own •
Vilnius,
Lithuania - capital of
Vilnius district municipality, itself a separate administrative unit (urban municipality). •
Zagreb,
Croatia – Capital of
Zagreb County, itself administratively separate
Oceania •
Alice Springs,
Northern Territory,
Australia - seat of three distinct
local government areas of the Northern Territory: the
Central Desert Region, the
MacDonnell Region, and itself, the Town of Alice Springs, which is not part of either region. •
Darwin,
Northern Territory,
Australia - seat of the separate
Tiwi Islands Region of the Northern Territory, itself its own local government area on the mainland as the City of Darwin. Additionally, two areas of the Northern Territory have no local government and are administered directly by the territory's government, and hence from Darwin, the territory's capital city: the
Northern Territory Rates Act Area and the
Unincorporated Top End Region. •
Honiara,
Solomon Islands – capital of
Guadalcanal Province, while itself a separate capital territory •
Invercargill,
New Zealand – seat of government for the large, rural
Southland District to its north while also a
territorial authority in its own right. •
Katherine,
Northern Territory,
Australia - seat of two separate local government areas of the Northern Territory: the
Roper Gulf Region and the
Victoria Daly Region, while being itself part of neither and its own local government area as the Town of Katherine. •
Mount Gambier,
South Australia – seat of government for the
District Council of Grant. The city is surrounded by the
District Council of Grant but is not actually a part of it, instead being a part of the
Mount Gambier local government area. •
Port Augusta, South Australia - one of the two seats that share the administrative functions of the immense but very sparsely populated
Outback Communities Authority local government area of South Australia, itself its own separate government area as the City of Port Augusta, which does not even border the Outback Communities Authority area. The other seat is the town of
Andamooka, which
is within the Outback Communities Authority area. •
Port Moresby,
Papua New Guinea – capital of
Central Province which surrounds city, but the city itself is in (and also the capital of) the
National Capital District == Historical ==