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
	ZH	Zurich (Zürich)	1351	Zurich	1,228,600	1,729	701	171	German
	BE	Bern (Berne)	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	&nbsp	Bern	7,261,200	41,285	174	2,890	German, French, Italian, Romansh

Notes: ¹ on 31 December 2001, National Statistics http://www.statistik.admin.ch/stat_ch/ber00/deck_m.htm , 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).

Names in other languages

Abbr	English	French	Italian	German	Romansh	Spanish	Esperanto¹
AG	Aargau	Argovie	Argovia	Aargau	Argovia	Argovia	&nbsp
AI	Appenzell Innerrhoden	Appenzell Rhodes-Intérieures	Appenzello Interno	Appenzell Innerhoden	Appenzell dadens	Appenzell Rodas Interiores	&nbsp
AR	Appenzell Ausserrhoden	Appenzell Rhodes-Extérieures	Appenzello Esterno	Appenzell Ausserrhoden	Appenzell dador	Appenzell Rodas Exteriores	&nbsp
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	&nbsp
GR	Graubünden	Grisons	Grigioni	Graubünden	Grischun	Grisones	Grizono
JU	Jura	Jura	Giura	Jura	Giura	Jura	&nbsp
LU	Lucerne	Lucerne	Lucerna	Luzern	Lucerna	Lucerna	Lucerno
NE	Neuchâtel	Neuchâtel	Neuchâtel	Neuenburg	Neuchâtel	Neuchatel	Neuchâtel
NW	Nidwalden	Nidwald	Nidvaldo	Nidwalden	Sutsilvania	Unterwalden Bajo	&nbsp
OW	Obwalden	Obwald	Obvaldo	Obwalden	Sursilvania	Unterwalden Alto	&nbsp
SH	Schaffhausen	Schaffhouse	Sciaffusa	Schaffhausen	Schaffusa	Schaffhausen	Ŝafhaŭzo
SZ	Schwyz	Schwyz (or Schwytz)	Svitto	Schwyz	Sviz	Schwyz	&nbsp
SO	Solothurn	Soleure	Soletta	Solothurn	Soloturn	Soleura	&nbsp
SG	St. Gallen	Saint-Gall	San Gallo	St. Gallen	Son Gagl	Sankt Gallen	&nbsp
TG	Thurgau	Thurgovie	Turgovia	Thurgau	Turgovia	Turgovia	&nbsp
TI	Ticino	Tessin	Ticino	Tessin	Tessin	Tesino	Tiĉino
UR	Uri	Uri	Uri	Uri	Uri	Uri	&nbsp
VS	Valais	Valais	Vallese	Wallis	Vallais	Valais	Valezo
VD	Vaud	Vaud	Vaud	Waadt	Vad	Vaud	Vaud
ZG	Zug	Zoug	Zugo	Zug	Zug	Zug	&nbsp
ZH	Zurich	Zurich	Zurigo	Zürich	Turitg	Zurich	Zuriko

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

See also: List of cantonal flags of Switzerland

External links

• Map http://www.world-gazetteer.com/s/s_ch.htm
• GeoPuzzle http://www.geomit.ch/schweiz.html Assemble cantons on a Swiss map