11 Sunniest Capital Cities in the World

If you are not fond of winter and cloudy weather, you might consider some of the sunniest capital cities in the world for your next vacation destination.

Amount of sunny days around the globe and days of sunshine per year by country, of course, depend on the position of a particular place on Earth (particularly on the angle of sun rays that hit the Earth’s surface) with the Equator receiving the most solar radiation. However, while going further north or south the amount of this energy falls.

But the sun is not the only thing for a place to have a good climate. Many other factors such as humidity, temperature, respiration all affect the climate of course. So for the preferable climate conditions for maintaining good health, you might be interested to take a look at 10 Countries with the Best Climate for Longevity. On the other hand, even though not being among countries with the most daylight hours in the world, Canada has a great nature and climate which surely some of you find great for a living (and on that matter check out which the 10 warmest sunniest places to live in Canada are).

As criteria for making our list, we have taken into account the number of hours of sunshine per year by city throughout the world. For making our list of the sunniest capitals in the world, we have also taken into account the sunniest cities in Europe, of course, (and since we are here you can check out the 15 Cities with the Best Climate in Europe to Live), though, you have guessed, you won’t find the sunniest cities in the world here. For that, we had to go more towards the south, closer to the Equator. We have gathered the data on the sunniest capitals in the world from ClimaTemps (based on annual hours of sunshine) as you will see further down on the list.

Since we are discussing only the capital cities here, we have not taken in mind all the cities in the world, but it is also interesting to know which city receives the highest amount of sunshine per year. It seems that Yuma, AZ, wins the race here with about 4011 sunny hours per year, followed by Phoenix, AZ (3872) and Aswan, Egypt (3863). When talking about the least sunniest place on earth, countries like Iceland, Scotland or Norway take the top positions here, which also covers the part of the world with cloudiest cities in the world (such as Tórshavn, Faroe Islands or Reykjavik, Iceland).

Now, when we have seen some facts about sunshine around the globe, let’s find out which the sunniest capital cities in the world are:

11. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Hours of sunshine per year: 3031

We start off with Africa of course, being the sunniest continent in the world. Ouagadougou belongs to dry savannah climate with no cold seasons and lots of sunshine obviously.

10. Mogadishu, Morocco

Hours of sunshine per year: 3083

Mogadishu is city placed in hot, dry arid climatic belt with an average annual temperature of 80.7˚F, with the average daily sunlight of 8h 26’.

9. Kabul, Afghanistan

Hours of sunshine per year: 3085

Although the average annual temperature in Kabul is 54˚F, having both cold winters and warm summers, it is among the sunniest capital cities in the world with 3085 hours of sunshine per year.

8. N’Djamena, Chad

Hours of sunshine per year: 3137

The amount of sunshine in this city is one of the reasons for it being very hot (with an annual average temperature of 82.9˚F) and very dry, belonging to a semi-arid climatic belt and tropical very dry biome.

7. Johannesburg, South Africa

Hours of sunshine per year: 3182

Johannesburg is one of the sunniest capital cities in the world with 3182 hours of sunshine per year (which is around 8 h 42’ daily), with the average daylight hours duration of 12 hours.

6. Tripoli, Libya

Hours of sunshine per year: 3187

Tripoli is a city characterized by a semi-arid climate, though the annual average temperature is around 69˚F, while it receives a lot of sunshine as we can see.

5. Nouakchott, Mauritania

Hours of sunshine per year: 3251

The capital and the largest city of Mauritania, placed on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean is among the sunniest capital cities with 3251 hours of sun received annually.

4. Tel Aviv, Israel

Hours of sunshine per year: 3304

With pleasant average (67˚F) and summer (79˚F) temperatures, Tel Aviv receives a lot of sun and is definitely a great place to visit for those fond of clear sunny weather.

3. Cairo, Egypt

Hours of sunshine per year: 3451

Apart from having the three famous pyramids, Cairo also takes the third place on our list with 3451 hours of sunshine. Moreover, Egypt is definitely one of the sunniest countries in the world.

2. Windhoek, Namibia

Hours of sunshine per year: 3605

Even though Windhoek is among the sunniest capital cities in the world, and belonging to semi-arid climate, the average annual temperature is pleasant 66.8˚F.

1. Khartoum, Sudan

Hours of sunshine per year: 3664

And of course, African sun wins with Khartoum being among the sunniest capital cities in the world. With the average annual temperature of 86˚F, it is also among the hottest and driest cities out there, with the average number of wet days being only 19.