The Capitol, Panem's seat of government, is located in the Rocky Mountains of the northwestern United States and is the home of dictator President Coriolanus Snow. The Hunger Games were conceived by Panem's totalitarian government in the Capitol, in the aftermath of a rebellion known only as the Dark Days.

Capitol citizens are shown to be mostly preoccupied with fashion, food, and entertainment. Dyes, tattoos, wigs, and costumes of myriad style and vivid colors are all the rage. Plastic surgery and other extreme makeovers are commonplace. A prime example is Tigris, a character in Mockingjay, a former stylist who has had plastic surgery to make her look like a cat, including whiskers and a very small nose. At parties, the selection of dishes is commonly far greater than would allow a single person to try everything. Guests often drink an emetic to vomit the food they have consumed in order to enjoy more. The entire Capitol eagerly anticipates the annual Hunger Games as the highlight of the year's entertainment. Capitol citizens manifest almost no concern for or even awareness of the desperate, starvation-level poverty conditions in which most district citizens live, or the tremendous injustice and tragedy of the Hunger Games. It appears that most of the citizens from the Capitol have names taken from ancient Rome and ancient Greece.

Citizens of the Capitol speak with a distinctive accent. Katniss describes it as "silly", high pitched with clipped tones and odd vowels, the ends of sentences going up as if they're asking a question and a hiss at the letter "s".[3]

Several major characters other than President Snow come from the Capitol.