Cantons of Switzerland ::: Project ETERNITY

The twenty-six cantons of Switzerland are the states of the federal state of Switzerland. Historically and until the mid-19th century, each canton in the then-confederation was a sovereign state, with its own borders, army, and currency; 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 liberated 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 Zurich, 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 (Landsgemeinden). The cantonal governments consist of either five or seven members, depending on the canton. 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 creation of the Canton of Jura in 1978 there have been no new cantons. Sometimes the number of cantons is given as twenty-three. In this case the cantons of Unterwalden, Appenzell, and Basel are counted as two half-cantons each. Unterwalden is divided into Obwalden and Nidwalden, Appenzell into Innerrhoden and Ausserrhoden, while Basel is divided into Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. These divisions exist for historical reasons and still only affect the number of seats in the Council of States and voting in federal initiatives. The new constitution of 1999 now enumerates each of the twenty-six cantons separately.

List and map

The table below lists the cantons in the order of the constitution.

Flag	Abbr	Canton	Since	Capital	Population1	Area2	Density3	Nr. of mun.s1	Official languages
CH	Switzerland		Bern	7,261,200	41,285	174	2,890	German, French, Italian, Romansh

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).

Names in other languages

Abbr	English	French	Italian	German	Romansh	Spanish	Esperanto¹
AG	Aargau	Argovie	Argovia	Aargau	Argovia	Argovia
AI	Appenzell Innerrhoden	Appenzell Rhodes-Intérieures	Appenzello Interno	Appenzell Innerhoden	Appenzell dadens	Appenzell Rodas Interiores
AR	Appenzell Ausserrhoden	Appenzell Rhodes-Extérieures	Appenzello Esterno	Appenzell Ausserrhoden	Appenzell dador	Appenzell Rodas Exteriores
BS	Basel-Stadt	Bâle-Ville	Basilea Città	Basel-Stadt	Basilea-Citad	Basilea-Ciudad	Bazelo-Urbo
BL	Basel-Landschaft	Bâle-Campagne	Basilea Campagna	Basel-Landschaft	Basilea-Champagna	Basilea-Campaña	Bazelo-Kamparo
BE	Bern	Berne	Berna	Bern	Berna	Berna	Berno
FR	Fribourg	Fribourg	Friburgo	Freiburg or Fribourg	Friburg	Friburgo	Friburgo
GE	Geneva	Genève	Ginevra	Genf	Genevra	Ginebra	Ĝenevo
GL	Glarus	Glaris	Glarona	Glarus	Glaruna	Glaris
GR	Graubünden	Grisons	Grigioni	Graubünden	Grischun	Grisones	Grizono
JU	Jura	Jura	Giura	Jura	Giura	Jura
LU	Lucerne	Lucerne	Lucerna	Luzern	Lucerna	Lucerna	Lucerno
NE	Neuchâtel	Neuchâtel	Neuchâtel	Neuenburg	Neuchâtel	Neuchatel	Neuchâtel
NW	Nidwalden	Nidwald	Nidvaldo	Nidwalden	Sutsilvania	Unterwalden Bajo
OW	Obwalden	Obwald	Obvaldo	Obwalden	Sursilvania	Unterwalden Alto
SH	Schaffhausen	Schaffhouse	Sciaffusa	Schaffhausen	Schaffusa	Schaffhausen	Ŝafhaŭzo
SZ	Schwyz	Schwyz (or Schwytz)	Svitto	Schwyz	Sviz	Schwyz
SO	Solothurn	Soleure	Soletta	Solothurn	Soloturn	Soleura
SG	St. Gallen	Saint-Gall	San Gallo	St. Gallen	Son Gagl	Sankt Gallen
TG	Thurgau	Thurgovie	Turgovia	Thurgau	Turgovia	Turgovia
TI	Ticino	Tessin	Ticino	Tessin	Tessin	Tesino	Tiĉino
UR	Uri	Uri	Uri	Uri	Uri	Uri
VS	Valais	Valais	Vallese	Wallis	Vallais	Valais	Valezo
VD	Vaud	Vaud	Vaud	Waadt	Vad	Vaud	Vaud
ZG	Zug	Zoug	Zugo	Zug	Zug	Zug
ZH	Zurich	Zurich	Zurigo	Zürich	Turitg	Zurich	Zuriko

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

See also

External links

Switzerland, Cantons of *Cantons of Switzerland

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