JOPLIN, Mo. — If you had just 10 minutes to name all fifty state capitals, do you think you would get most of them correct? Which ones would you forget and which would you remember?
The folks at BetMissouri.com also had those same questions, and thought it would be interesting to see which state capitals most commonly escape the minds of the general public.
By analyzing results from Sporcle’s “U.S. Capitals Quiz” (a quiz where participants are given 10 minutes to name all 50 capitals), the most forgotten state capital in the U.S. turns out to be Missouri’s own Jefferson City, with just 61.5% of quiz participants remembering it.
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Unlike the top three most forgettable state capitals — Jefferson City, Missouri, Concord, New Hampshire, and Charleston, West Virginia — the ones most remembered are Austin, Texas, Sacramento, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. Here’s a list of the full results:
| # | CAPITAL | STATE | % Of People Who Remembered The Capital |
| 1 | Jefferson City | Missouri | 61.5% |
| 2 | Concord | New Hampshire | 62.1% |
| 3 | Charleston | West Virginia | 62.7% |
| 4 | Frankfort | Kentucky | 65.4% |
| 5 | Columbia | South Carolina | 65.8% |
| 6 | Montpelier | Vermont | 66.3% |
| 7 | Pierre | South Dakota | 68.0% |
| 8 | Harrisburg | Pennsylvania | 68.9% |
| 9 | Montgomery | Alabama | 69.0% |
| 10 | Bismarck | North Dakota | 69.1% |
| 11 | Cheyenne | Wyoming | 69.6% |
| 12 | Annapolis | Maryland | 69.7% |
| 13 | Madison | Wisconsin | 70.2% |
| 14 | Lansing | Michigan | 70.3% |
| 15 | Richmond | Virginia | 70.4% |
| 16 | Lincoln | Nebraska | 70.5% |
| 17 | Hartford | Connecticut | 70.8% |
| 18 | Des Moines | Iowa | 71.2% |
| 19 | Augusta | Maine | 71.2% |
| 20 | Jackson | Mississippi | 71.6% |
| 21 | Topeka | Kansas | 71.9% |
| 22 | Saint Paul | Minnesota | 72.5% |
| 23 | Helena | Montana | 72.8% |
| 24 | Trenton | New Jersey | 73.1% |
| 25 | Providence | Rhode Island | 73.1% |
| 26 | Raleigh | North Carolina | 73.8% |
| 27 | Salem | Oregon | 73.8% |
| 28 | Carson City | Nevada | 74.1% |
| 29 | Dover | Delaware | 74.2% |
| 30 | Olympia | Washington | 74.3% |
| 31 | Springfield | Illinois | 74.8% |
| 32 | Santa Fe | New Mexico | 75.3% |
| 33 | Columbus | Ohio | 75.3% |
| 34 | Boise | Idaho | 78.3% |
| 35 | Baton Rouge | Louisiana | 78.7% |
| 36 | Nashville | Tennessee | 78.8% |
| 37 | Juneau | Alaska | 78.9% |
| 38 | Little Rock | Arkansas | 79.1% |
| 39 | Indianapolis | Indiana | 82.0% |
| 40 | Phoenix | Arizona | 82.1% |
| 41 | Tallahassee | Florida | 82.3% |
| 42 | Oklahoma City | Oklahoma | 83.5% |
| 43 | Salt Lake City | Utah | 83.6% |
| 44 | Albany | New York | 84.3% |
| 45 | Denver | Colorado | 84.8% |
| 46 | Atlanta | Georgia | 84.8% |
| 47 | Boston | Massachusetts | 85.2% |
| 48 | Honolulu | Hawaii | 85.6% |
| 49 | Sacramento | California | 85.8% |
| 50 | Austin | Texas | 86.3% |
According to results from Sporcle’s U.S. Capitals Quiz, here are some of the U.S. state capitals that people most commonly get wrong:
- Albany, New York (often mistaken for New York City).
- Springfield, Illinois (often mistaken for Chicago).
- Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (often mistaken for Philadelphia or Pittsburg).
- Salem, Oregon (often mistaken for Portland).
- Columbus, Ohio (often mistaken for Cleveland or Cincinnati).
- Raleigh, North Carolina (often mistaken for Charlotte).
- Olympia, Washington (often mistaken for Seattle).
- Lansing, Michigan (often mistaken for Detroit).
