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Statistical information about Switzerland

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Table of contents:

  1. Ethnic divisions
  2. Religions
  3. Languages
  4. Statistics about cantons
  5. Cantons by size (area)
  6. Cantons by population
  7. Cantons by foreign citizens

1. Ethnic divisions:

To table of contents

2. Religions:

To table of contents

3. Languages:

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.

To table of contents

Statistics about cantons:

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

¹) Numbers of the year 1995
²) Numbers of the year 1997
The most recent census was done in 2000, more ....

To table of contents

Cantons by size (area):

[ Area in km2 ]

To table of contents

Cantons by population:

[ Population ]

To table of contents

Cantons by foreign citizens:

[ Foreign Citizens in % ]

To table of contents

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