Switzerland is made up of cantons, yes. But just how many are there? Again, what is a canton? How are cantons formed? Who is in charge of a canton? What are the biggest and smallest cantons in Switzerland? All of your canton-related questions have been answered here..
A Canton is what you would call a state in other countries like the US. The Swiss country is made up of 26 cantons.
Switzerland cantons
Switzerland is one country that has great respect for its roots. Some of the historical cultures are still in place today. Most of Switzerland's cantons have their history dating back to 100 years ago. Earlier, each canton had its own money and army. This continued until 1848 when Switzerland took on the federal operation structure that it has now.
Switzerland is made up of 20 full cantons and 6 half cantons. This makes a total of 26 cantons in the country.
Full cantons have 2 seats in the senate, while half cantons have 1 seat. Also, in cases where the majority of cantons are casting a vote to approve a constitutional change, a half canton has half vote. Besides this, the internal autonomy of cantons is the same.
There is a constitution governing each Canton which is approved by the federal parliament. The Cantonal government is in charge of the constitution for each canton. The government consists of 5 to 6 persons elected by the people. The government is exposed to a broad range of power levels including setting their tax rates, having their education system, running their social services and other sectors the way they deem fit, as long as it is in line with the federal legislation.
Each canton varies in size. Currently, the most populated canton is Zurich with about 1.3 million inhabitants. Appenzell Inner Rhodes has the least population with just 15,000 people. The largest canton is Graubunden with over 7000 sq km out of Switzerland’s 41,000. The smallest canton is Basel city with 37 sq km.
History of cantons
The first three cantons; Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden were formed by local notables in Swiss central in 1291 as a symbol of an alliance. Every canton has a unique official language. Originally, the cantons were formed when independent groups having a similar goal came together to reduce the conflicts between them. Eventually, the group grew and became home to a lot of people.
Roles of cantons
Each canton contains several cities. Cities are known as communes in Switzerland. So while the cantons are in charge of funding and supervising most of the systems, the communes are in charge of running the systems. Citizens have a closer relationship and are more likely to interact with their commune and canton leaders than the federal government.
The canton list
Here is a table containing the canton, its capital, and the official languages in it.
| S/N | Cantons | Capital | Language |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aargau | Aarau | German |
| 2 | Appenzell Ausserrhoden | Herisau | German |
| 3 | Appenzell Innerrhoden | Appenzell | German |
| 4 | Basel-Landschaft | Liestal | German |
| 5 | Basel-Stadt | Basel | German |
| 6 | Bern/Berne | Bern | German/French |
| 7 | Fribourg/ Freiburg | Fribourg | French/ German |
| 8 | Geneve | Geneva | French |
| 9 | Glarus | Glarus | German |
| 10 | Graubunden/Grischun/Grigioni | Chur | German, Romansh, Italian. |
| 11 | Jura | Delemont | French |
| 12 | Luzern | Lucerne | German |
| 13 | Neuchatel | Neuchatel | French |
| 14 | Nidwalden | Stans | German |
| 15 | Obwalden | Sarnen | German |
| 16 | St. Gallen | St. Gallen | German |
| 17 | Schaffhausen | Schaffhausen | German |
| 18 | Schwyz | Schwyz | German |
| 19 | Solothurn | Solothurn | German |
| 20 | Thurgau | Frauenfeld | German |
| 21 | Ticino | Bellinzona | Italian |
| 22 | Uri | Altdorf | German |
| 23 | Valais/Wallis | Sion | French, German |
| 24 | Vaud | Lausanne | French |
| 25 | Zug | Zug | German |
| 26 | Zurich | Zurich | German |
Most Swiss cantons have just a single language. A few others are bilingual and trilingual.
Mono-lingual:
| Official language | No of cantons |
|---|---|
| French | 4 |
| German | 17 |
| Italian | 1 |
Bi-lingual:
| Official language | No of cantons |
|---|---|
| French and German | 3 |
Trilingual:
| Official language | No of cantons |
|---|---|
| German, Romansh and Italian | 1 |
There are some considerations that must be made before choosing which canton you should belong to. If you are moving to Swiss with the hope of becoming a Swiss citizen, then some cantons are easier to gain citizenship in. Cantons like; Vaud, Zurich, Geneva, and Schaffhausen have very easy requirements for citizenship.
Other cantons like; Graubunden, Aargau and Bern are quite difficult to gain citizenship.
All of the cantons have unique features that make them attractive to visitors from around the world. Switzerland is a destination country with lots of benefits to offer both visitors and citizens.