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Cantons of Switzerland facts for kids

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Cantons of Switserland
The cantons of Switzerland

The 26 'cantons' of Switzerland are the states of the country of Switzerland.

Switzerland is divided into 26 different areas. Each area is called a canton. A canton is like a state in the United States.

In the past, each canton had its own army and money. This changed in 1848 when Switzerland 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 Berne, 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.

The word for that is called federalism. That means, that each canton has its own government. So all cantons have their own 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.

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

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Cantones de Suiza para niños

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