Statistical information about Switzerland

Total population:

Swiss Nationals only:

Roman Catholic	47.6%
Protestant	44.3%
Other	8.1%

Total population:

Swiss Nationals only:

Even though Switzerland is a small country, its people do speak no less than four different languages. Everything from the list of the ingredients on the package of the groceries to the manual of the most complicated TV set has to be printed in three different languages (German, French and Italian).

The so called "German speaking" Swiss don't speak the same German as the Germans or the Austrians do, but what is known as "Swiss-German". To make it even worse, each state has its own dialect, but there is no written "Swiss-German" at all ! Fortunately, the Germans, the Austrians and the Swiss-Germans use the same written German language which in turn is close to the so called "high German", a "quasi-standard" of the German languages.

For much more information about languages in Switzerland, see words and phrases.

Here we provide statistical information about the Cantons of Switzerland. The figures are based on information provided by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office ("Bundesamt für Statistik" (BFS)).

Nr.	Canton	Short	Member since	State Capital	Area ¹)	Population ²)	Foreign Citizens in %	Municipalities ²)	Seats in Nationalrat ¹)
1	Zürich	ZH	1351	Zürich	1'729	1'181'600	21.1	171	34
2	Bern / Berne	BE	1353	Bern	5'959	938'600	11.4	400	27
3	Luzern	LU	1332	Luzern	1'493	342'900	14.7	107	10
4	Uri	UR	1291	Altdorf	1'077	35'800	8.8	20	1
5	Schwyz	SZ	1291	Schwyz	908	125'200	15.3	30	3
6	Unterwalden	UW	1291	-	767	consisting of the two Halb-Kantone:
	- Obwalden	OW	1291	Sarnen	(491)	31'800	10.7	7	1
	- Nidwalden	NW	1291	Stans	(276)	37'200	9.2	11	1
7	Glarus	GL	1352	Glarus	685	38'700	20.1	29	1
8	Zug	ZG	1352	Zug	239	95'100	18.6	11	3
9	Freiburg / Fribourg	FR	1481	Fribourg	1'671	229'900	13.7	247	6
10	Solothurn	SO	1481	Solothurn	791	241'600	15.9	126	7
11	Basel	-	1501	-	555	consisting of the two Halb-Kantone:
	- Basel Stadt	BS	1501	Basel	(37)	193'100	26.3	3	6
	- Basel Land	BL	1501	Liestal	(518)	255'300	16.0	86	7
12	Schaffhausen	SH	1501	Schaffhausen	299	73'700	19.4	34	2
13	Appenzell	-	1513	-	416	consisting of the two Halb-Kantone:
	- Appenzell Ausserrhoden	AR	1513	Herisau	(243)	54'000	14.3	20	2
	- Appenzell Innerrhoden	AI	1513	Appenzell	(173)	14'900	10.3	6	1
14	Sankt Gallen	SG	1803	Sankt Gallen	2'026	443'900	18.9	90	12
15	Graubünden	GR	1803	Chur	7'105	185'500	13.7	213	5
16	Aargau	AG	1803	Aarau	1'404	534'000	18.3	232	15
17	Thurgau	TG	1803	Frauenfeld	991	225'400	19.2	103	6
18	Ticino	TI	1803	Bellinzona	2'812	305'600	26.6	245	8
19	Vaud	VD	1803	Lausanne	3'212	608'200	25.9	385	17
20	Valais / Valais	VS	1815	Sitten / Sion	5'225	273'400	16.8	163	7
21	Neuchâtel	NE	1815	Neuchâtel	803	165'400	22.3	62	5
22	Genève	GE	1815	Genève	282	396'600	37.6	45	11
23	Jura	JU	1978	Delemont	838	69'400	11.9	83	2
	Switzerland	CH	1291	Bern	41'285	7'096'800	22.4%	2929	200

¹) Numbers of the year 1995
²) Numbers of the year 1997