Cantons of Switzerland

Switzerland is divided into 26 different territories called cantons. A canton is similar to a state in the United States.

In the past, each canton had its own army and money. This changed in 1848 when Switzerland finished the Sonderbund civil war and changed to the structure it has now.

The cantons Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden (Nidwalden and Obwalden together are called Unterwalden) are called Urkantone. An Urkanton is a canton that existed since the foundation of Switzerland in 1291. With time, other cantons joined Switzerland. Jura is the newest canton in Switzerland since 1978. In that year, it split from the canton of Bern, after some rioting.

The cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Appenzell-Ausserrhoden, Obwalden and Nidwalden are different from the others in one way. For historical reasons, their voting is counted differently in national elections. Other than that, they are the same as the others.

In Switzerland, the individual municipalities and cantons are very free. Usually, there is a Swiss law (at the level of the whole confederation). Very often this states general things and says that the cantons must follow this rule. The cantons then make detailed rules, each in the way it sees fit. Sometimes this leads to strange situations. There are 26 different schooling systems.

Drug abuse is a federal offense. Punishment is usually one to three years, but can also be only a fine. The problem is: Consumption itself (not trading, or giving away for free) is not punishable. Also in light cases, the police can say that there will be no fine. This has led to the fact, that in each canton, this law is applied differently. In one canton, smoking marijuana will mean a fine, in another, it can mean a prison term.

The word for that is called federalism. That means each canton has its own government and constitution. The constitution is the highest law in a state.

List and map

The cantons are listed in the order given in the federal constitution.^[1]

Abbr	Canton	Since	Capital	Population¹	Area²	Density³	Nr of Municipalities¹	Official languages
ZH	Zürich (Zurich)	1351	Zürich	1,228,600	1,729	701	171	German
BE	Bern	1353	Bern	947,100	5,959	158	399	German, French
LU	Lucerne	1332	Lucerne	350,600	1,493	233	107	German
UR	Uri	1291	Altdorf	35,000	1,077	33	20	German
SZ	Schwyz	1291	Schwyz	131,400	908	143	30	German
OW	Obwalden (Obwald)	1291	Sarnen	32,700	491	66	7	German
NW	Nidwalden (Nidwald)	1291	Stans	38,600	276	138	11	German
GL	Glarus	1352	Glarus	38,300	685	51	28	German
ZG	Zug	1352	Zug	100,900	239	416	11	German
FR	Fribourg	1481	Fribourg	239,100	1,671	141	242	French, German
SO	Solothurn	1481	Solothurn	245,500	791	308	126	German
BS	Basel-Stadt (Basle-City)	1501	Basel	186,700	37	5,072	3	German
BL	Basel-Landschaft (Basle-Country)	1501	Liestal	261,400	518	502	86	German
SH	Schaffhausen	1501	Schaffhausen	73,400	298	246	34	German
AR	Appenzell Ausserrhoden (Outer Rhodes)	1513	Herisau⁴	53,200	243	220	20	German
AI	Appenzell Innerrhoden (Inner Rhodes)	1513	Appenzell	15,000	173	87	6	German
SG	St. Gallen (St. Gall)	1803	St. Gallen	452,600	2,026	222	90	German
GR	Graubünden (Grisons)	1803	Chur	185,700	7,105	26	211	German, Romansh, Italian
AG	Aargau (Argovia)	1803	Aarau	550,900	1,404	388	232	German
TG	Thurgau (Thurgovia)	1803	Frauenfeld	228,200	991	229	80	German
TI	Ticino	1803	Bellinzona	311,900	2,812	110	244	Italian
VD	Vaud	1803	Lausanne	626,200	3,212	188	382	French
VS	Valais	1815	Sion	278,200	5,224	53	160	French, German
NE	Neuchâtel	1815	Neuchâtel	166,500	803	206	62	French
GE	Geneva	1815	Geneva	414,300	282	1,442	45	French
JU	Jura	1979	Delémont	69,100	838	82	83	French
CH	Switzerland		Bern	7,261,200	41,285	174	2,890	German, French, Italian, Romansh

Notes: ¹ As of 31 December 2001, National Statistics, ² km², ³ per km², based on 2000 population ⁴ seat of government and parliament, the seat of the judicial authorities is Trogen.

The two-letter abbreviations for Swiss cantons are widely used, e.g. on car license plates and in the ISO 3166-2 codes (with the prefix "CH-", i.e. CH-SZ for the canton of Schwyz).

References

↑ This is the order generally used in Swiss official documents. At the head of the list are the three city cantons that were considered preeminent in the Old Swiss Confederacy; the other cantons are listed in order of accession to the Confederation. This traditional order of precedence among the cantons has no practical relevance in the modern federal state, in which the cantons are equal to one another, although it still determines formal precedence among the cantons' officials (see Swiss order of precedence).

[1] This is the order generally used in Swiss official documents. At the head of the list are the three city cantons that were considered preeminent in the Old Swiss Confederacy; the other cantons are listed in order of accession to the Confederation. This traditional order of precedence among the cantons has no practical relevance in the modern federal state, in which the cantons are equal to one another, although it still determines formal precedence among the cantons' officials (see Swiss order of precedence).

[1]