A capital territory or capital district is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in the federal model of government, no one state or territory takes pre-eminence because the national capital lies within its borders. A capital territory can be a specific form of federal district.

A distinction should be made from administrative divisions which include national capitals, but have no special designated status legally (for example, Île de France has no distinct quality from other regions of France). Some federal countries (like Belgium), give their national capitals the status as full, equal federal units.

Some federal countries have made no distinction administratively for the territory around the capital. A few federal countries have their national capitals located in the capital city of a federal state: Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is also the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of two federal units; and Berne, the capital of Switzerland, is the capital of the Canton of Berne.

Two national capitals are neither federal units, special capital districts, nor capitals of federal units: Ottawa, the capital of Canada, and Palikir, the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia. The Canadian government does designate the Ottawa area as the National Capital Region, although this term merely represents the jurisdictional area of the government agency that administers federally-owned lands and buildings, and is not an actual administrative unit.

The following have a special administrative district or territory for their national capital cities: