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Political Map
Statistics
Abbreviations
Coat of Arms

Switzerland's 26 Cantons (Federal States)

Switzerland's 26 cantons are the federal states of the Swiss confederation. For historical and geographical reasons they differ widely: The largest canton (Graubünden/Grisons) has 192 times the area of the smallest (Basel-Stadt) but even less inhabitants while canton Zurich has about 80 times more inhabitants than canton Appenzell Innerrhoden.

Political Map of Switzerland's Cantons

Political Map of Switzerland's Cantons
For abbreviations of cantons see table below

Basic Statistical Data on Switzerland's Cantons

Number plates on Swiss cars show both the coat of arms of the Swiss confederation and of the canton as well as the abbreviation of the canton in between. The following table shows the cantons with their abbreviations and basic statistical data. The abbreviations are often used in Switzerland, also as domain names for all official websites of cantonal administrations (see links in fourth column).

Entry into Con- fed.	Name of Canton	Abbr	Area km² sq mi	Inhabitants	Popu- lation Density /km² /sq mi	Lan- guage	Capital	Inhabi- tants
<1415> 1803	Aargau	AG	1,404 542	556,000	396 1026	d	Aarau	15,000
1411 1513 [1597]	Appenzell Ausserrhoden	AR	243 94	53,000	218 564	d	Herisau	15,000
1411 1513 [1597]	Appenzell Innerrhoden	AI	173 67	15,000	87 224	d	Appenzell	5,000
1400 1501 [1833]	Basel-Land	BL	518 200	263,000	508 1315	d	Liestal	12,000
1400 1501 [1833]	Basel-Stadt	BS	37 14	186,000	5027 13286	d	Basel city guide	165,000
1323 1353	Bern	BE	5,959 2301	950,000	159 413	d,f	Bern city guide	122,000
1481	Fribourg Freiburg	FR	1,671 645	243,000	145 377	f,d	Fribourg Freiburg	33,000
1815	Genève [Geneva]	GE	282 109	419,000	1486 3848	f	Genève [Geneva] city guide	178,000
1352	Glarus	GL	685 264	38,000	55 144	d	Glarus	6,000
1498 1803	Graubünden Grischuns Grigioni	GR	7,105 2743	186,000	26 68	d,r,i	Chur	32,000
[1979]	Jura	JU	839 324	69,000	82 213	f	Delémont	11,000
1332	Luzern [Lucerne]	LU	1,494 576	352,000	236 610	d	Luzern city guide	73,000
1406 1815	Neuchâtel	NE	803 310	167,000	208 539	f	Neuchâtel	32,000
1291	Nidwalden	NW	276 107	39,000	141 366	d	Stans	7,000
1291	Obwalden	OW	491 190	33,000	67 174	d	Sarnen	9,000
1412 1803	St.Gallen	SG	2,026 782	455,000	225 582	d	St. Gallen	70,000
1501	Schaffhausen	SH	299 115	74,000	248 641	d	Schaffhausen	33,000
1291	Schwyz	SZ	908 351	133,000	146 379	d	Schwyz	14,000
1400 1481	Solothurn	SO	791 305	247,000	312 809	d	Solothurn	15,000
<1460> 1803	Thurgau	TG	991 383	230,000	232 601	d	Frauenfeld	22,000
<1403> 1803	Ticino	TI	2,813 1086	315,000	112 290	i	Bellinzona	16,000
1291	Uri	UR	1,077 416	35,000	33 84	d	Altdorf	8,000
<1536> 1803	Vaud	VD	3,212 1240	632,000	197 509	f	Lausanne city guide	116,000
1403 1815	Valais Wallis	VS	5,225 2017	281,000	54 139	f,d	Sion Sitten	28,000
1352	Zug	ZG	239 92	102,000	427 1105	d	Zug	23,000
1351	Zürich	ZH	1,729 668	1,242,000	718 1860	d	Zürich city guide	342,000
1291	Switzerland [total]	CH	41,293 15,943	7,451,000	180 467	d,f,i,r	Bern city guide	122,000

For detailed statistics on Switzerland see: Federal Office for Statistics

Some Notes on Statistical Information

Entry into the Confederation
The relatively late dates of entry into the confederation for ten out of 26 cantons might give the completely false impression that these cantons were not part of the confederation until the 19th century.
In fact these cantons were part of the old confederation from the 15th and 16th centuries on, though not as free and equal confederates but rather as conquered and subdued territories (don't believe all myths about the oldest democracy, read the brute historical facts about political power in Switzerland before the 1798 revolution).
Therefore this table gives, unlike the usual compilations, the dates of conquest <in italics and brackets> for Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino and Vaud.
Other cantons first had a status of associated members, dates of first association treaty are given in italics.
Graubünden was originally itself a small confederation of three valleys (1367, extended 1395, 1424, 1436) and became associated to the Swiss confederation in 1498.
Dates in [brackets] show the splitting of cantons Appenzell, Basel and Unterwalden into half-cantons, and the separation of canton Jura from Bern.
Official Languages spoken in public life are abbreviated as
d = Deutsch (German), f = French, i = Italian, r = Rumantsch.
Population density:
The overall population density of 180 inhabitants per km² is almost as high as in the UK or India, and significantly higher than in France or the U.S.A. A closer look shows that the highly industrialized Mittelland [midlands, plateau] region stretching from Lake Geneva to Bodensee [Lake of Constance] includes all major cities and is overcrowded with a population density of about 600 inhabitants per km² - though this region is the only in Switzerland where agriculture is possible on a fairly intense level. In the prealpine and Jura regions the population density is about 80 to 250 inhabitants per km² while it reaches 25 to 70 in the alpine cantons.

> See also: www.gov.ch
Register of the internet sites of Switzerland's Administration and Public Services on federal, cantonal and communal level. Most of the websites listed there are only available in the (German, French, Italian, Rumantsch), however.

Short quotations allowed but with precise declaration of origin (Link).
Reproduction of substantial parts and pictures in printed or electronic form only with explicit written consent by the editor.

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