Which state capitals are closest together?

How the distances were measured

Each of the 50 state capitals and Washington, DC has one stored coordinate on this site, near its capitol building. The table below measures all 1,275 pairs with the haversine formula on a sphere of radius 6,371.0088 km, then picks the nearest and farthest capital for each. Distances are straight lines, not roads. The distance guide shows every step of the formula.

The closest pairs

15 pairs are less than 100 miles apart: Washington and Annapolis; Boston and Providence; Dover and Annapolis; Boston and Concord; Hartford and Providence; Hartford and Albany; Dover and Washington; Dover and Trenton; Concord and Montpelier; Annapolis and Harrisburg; Hartford and Boston; Washington and Harrisburg; Concord and Providence; Washington and Richmond; Denver and Cheyenne. Washington and Annapolis lead at 30 miles. Half of all capitals have a neighbor capital within 140 miles.

Washington, DC is included because every state table on this site lists DC next to the 50 states. It is the nearest capital to Annapolis, MD and Richmond, VA, so leaving it out would change those rows.

The most isolated capitals

Honolulu, HI is the most isolated: its nearest capital, Sacramento, is 2,460 miles away. In the contiguous states the most isolated capital is Phoenix, AZ, 382 miles from Santa Fe. Large western states put their capitals far apart, and that shows up as long gaps in the table.

The farthest pairs

The farthest pair overall is Honolulu and Augusta, 5,111 miles apart. Within the contiguous states it is Sacramento, CA and Augusta, ME at 2,663 miles. The great circle guide shows how much longer those trips get if you hold one compass heading.

Nearest and farthest capital for all 51

Neighbors are not always nearest

In the contiguous states, every capital's nearest capital is in a bordering state or DC. The exceptions are the two states with no land border to another state: Juneau's nearest is Olympia, and Honolulu's nearest is Sacramento. The state comparisons pair every set of bordering states and show the capital to capital distance next to population and land area.

Distances from Washington, DC

Measured from DC, the nearest state capital is Annapolis, MD, at 30 miles, and the farthest is Honolulu, HI, at 4,829 miles. Half of the 50 state capitals are within 715 miles of DC. The bearing guide lists the direction and distance from DC to every capital.

What the typical gap looks like

Averaged over all 51, the nearest capital is 213 miles away. The average is pulled up by Juneau and Honolulu, which have no close neighbors. Leave those two out and the average for the other 49 drops to 153 miles.

The spread follows state size. Where states are small, capitals are a short drive apart. In the West, with larger states and capitals spread across them, the nearest capital is often a few hundred miles away.

Measure any pair

The distance between state capitals tool below takes any two capitals and returns the straight-line distance, the bearing, and the midpoint. For towns and addresses, the crow flies distance calculator does the same for any two points.

How many capitals are within a given distance

Counting pairs instead of nearest neighbors gives another view. Of the 1,275 capital pairs, 15 are less than 100 miles apart, 81 are less than 250, and 199 are 2,000 miles or more apart. The median pair is 990 miles apart.

For trip planning, the straight-line figure is a lower bound. Roads add distance, and the amount depends on terrain and the highway network between the two cities.