An E-Classification of the World's Capital Cities

Abstract

The world’s capital cities perform various political functions for their populations, contain embassies, consulates, and missions of other governments, and serve as headquarters for major corporations, cultural, and humanitarian organizations. While social scientists have classified major cities based on population size, number of corporate headquarters, banks, and airline connections, the emergence of ICTs suggests additional criteria. I use the number of URL references to Web sites listed in the Google search engine for 199 world capitals and classify them into five distinct categories. Small, prosperous city-states and major capitals in Western Europe and North America have the most hyperlinks. The fewest are for capitals in poor, rural Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Capitals with multiple government offices, strong ICT economies and dominant tourist economies have the most hyperlinks per capita. These are mostly in wealthy Europe and North America. The lowest values are among African and Asian capitals in poor countries and those with repressive regimes. Major news items, embassy, financial, and tourism information are major themes on web pages. Additional research topics are suggested.