Cantons of Switzerland

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The twenty-six cantons of Switzerland are the states of the federal state of Switzerland. Historically each canton in the then-confederation was a sovereign state, with its own borders, army, and currency until the current federal structure was established in 1848.

During the sixteenth century, the Swiss Confederation was composed of thirteen self-governed states. These states were called cantons, and there were two different kinds of cantons: the six forest cantons and seven urban cantons. Though they were technically part of the Holy Roman Empire, they had become almost completely independent when the Swiss defeated Emperor Maximillian in 1499.

The six forest cantons were democratic republics, while the seven urban cantons were governed by city councils. However, these city councils were controlled by small oligarchies of wealthy citizens. The urban cantons included Zürich, Bern, and Basel.

Each canton has its own constitution, legislature, government and courts. Most of the cantons' legislatures are unicameral parliaments, their size varying between fifty-eight and two hundred seats. A few legislatures are general assemblies known as Landsgemeinden. The cantonal governments consist of either five or seven members, depending on the canton. For the names of the institutions, see List of legislative and executive councils of the Cantons of Switzerland.

All tasks that do not explicitly fall within the Confederation according to the Swiss Constitution are matters of the cantons. The cantons determine the degree of autonomy of the municipalities, thus this varies greatly. The sizes of the cantons are extremely different: from just 37 to 7,105 square km; the populations vary from 14,900 to 1,244,400.

In cantonal matters, direct democracy in the form of general assemblies (Landsgemeinde) is now confined to the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Glarus. In all other cantons democratic rights are expressed using the ballot box. Since the Canton of Jura split from the Canton of Bern in 1978, no new cantons have been created.

List and map

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

Flag	Abbr	Canton	Since	Capital	Population1	Area2	Density3	Nr. of mun.s1	Official languages
	ZH	Zürich (Zurich)	1351	Zürich	1,228,600	1,729	701	171	German
	BE	Berne (Bern)	1353	Berne	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-Land (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).

The traditional half-cantons

Six cantons have traditionally been called "half-cantons". This term is now deprecated by constitutional scholars, as the 1999 constitution lists 26 coequal cantons, and the more unwieldy appellation "cantons with half a cantonal vote" is sometimes used.

All traditional half-cantons have resulted from the division of a preexisting territory or canton:

• The region of Unterwalden has, in the historical record, always been divided into the half-cantons of Obwalden and Nidwalden.
• The canton of Appenzell split into the half-cantons of Innerrhoden and Ausserrhoden in 1597 as a result of the Reformation.
• The canton of Basel was divided into the half-cantons of Basel-City and Basel-Country after a revolt of the Basel countryside in 1833.

As federal states, the traditional half-cantons have the same institutional structure as well as the same rights and obligations as the other cantons, with two exceptions. For one thing, they elect only one member of the Council of States instead of two. Also, in popular referenda that require not only a national popular majority but also the assent of a majority of the cantons (Ständemehr / majorité des cantons), such as constitutional amendments, the result of their cantonal vote counts half as much as that of other cantons, to the effect that a majority of the cantons is actually the majority of twenty-three cantonal votes.

Names in other languages

Notes: ¹where a version differing from German is available.

Notes

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).

See also

• List of coats of arms of Swiss cantons
• List of legislative and executive councils of the Cantons of Switzerland
• List of 2005 cantonal office-holders on January 1, 2005.
• Data codes for Switzerland#Cantons
• List of Cantons of Switzerland by area
• List of Cantons of Switzerland by highest point
• Flags of Swiss cantons

External links

• GeoPuzzle - Assemble cantons on a Swiss map
• Badac - Database on Swiss cantons and cities (French/German)

Cantons of Switzerland
Aargau | Appenzell Ausserrhoden | Appenzell Innerrhoden | Basel-City | Basel-Country | Berne | Fribourg | Geneva | Glarus | Graubünden | Jura | Lucerne | Neuchâtel | Nidwalden | Obwalden | Schaffhausen | Schwyz | Solothurn | St. Gallen | Thurgau | Ticino | Uri | Valais | Vaud | Zug | Zürich

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