- Who
- Melekeok
- What
- 277 people
- Where
- Palau ()
- When
The smallest capital for a sovereign nation is Melekeok, the administrative capital of the tiny island nation of Palau. Melekeok, which has a population of just 277 according to the country's 2015 census, became the capital in December 2006, when the seat of government was moved from the island's largest settlement – Koror, population 11,444 – to a new Capitol building in a place called Ngerulmud, in Melekeok state.
Melekeok isn't really a capital "city" in the sense that most people would recognise it, but it has the official status of one. It's a largely forested administrative region that covers an area of around 26 km2 (10.3 sq mi) – about a quarter of the size of Disney World in Florida, USA. It is home to a few coastal hamlets, some scattered homesteads in the hills and, towering over everything, the Capitol Building. The settlement of Koror, which is the closest thing Palau has to an urban agglomeration, is located around 18 km (11 miles) to the south.
As Palau has a population of only 17,661 people according to its most recent census, a higher proportion of the nation lives in tiny Melekeok (1.5% of Palau's poplation) than in Washington, D.C. (0.2% of the US population).
