TOPONYMIC FACTFILE
Switzerland
Country name Switzerland
State title Swiss Confederation
Schweiz (deu)
Suisse (fra)
Country name in official languages
Svizzera (ita)
Svizra (roh)
Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (deu)
Confédération suisse (fra)
State title in official languages
Confederazione Svizzera (ita)
Confederaziun svizra (roh)
Name of citizen Swiss
Official languages German (deu), French (fra), Italian (ita), Romansh (roh) 1
Script Roman
ISO-3166 code (alpha-2/alpha-3) (CH/CHE)
Capital Bern2
Population/Area 8.74 million3 / 41,285 km2
Introduction
Switzerland is a landlocked country in the heart of Europe. The Alps cover 60% and stretch the width
of the country. The Jura mountain range extends into France in the northwest and in the centre is the
Swiss Plateau or “Mittelland”, which has the highest concentration of populated areas. The Latin name
of the state title is Confœderatio Helvetica and of the country is Helvetia. These forms appear on
coinage, stamps and are used as the source for e.g. the top-level domain .ch and the ISO country
codes. As a confederated state, Switzerland grants a high degree of autonomy to each canton.
Geographical names policy
Switzerland’s national mapping agency is Bundesamt für Landestopografie (Federal Office of
Topography), known as swisstopo. Geographical names should be taken from their official maps and
geodata (available online), with all diacritical marks retained. Several of the canton websites also have
their own geoportals.
Swiss multilingualism comes of its geographical location, neighbouring Austria, France, Germany and
Italy. In regions where multiple official languages are spoken, various names may be encountered and
Switzerland’s approach is to use the name in the official language(s) of the canton. The choice of
official language(s) rests with the canton and is usually the mother tongue of the majority population
according to the latest census. In cantons with a significant minority population, this linguistic
1 ISO 639-3 codes are given for languages mentioned in this Factfile.
2 Often referred to as the “federal capital”, Bern is the capital of Switzerland. The French spelling is Berne and the Italian is
Berna, but the local official spelling Bern (deu) is recommended for use on HMG products.
3 https://www.eda.admin.ch/aboutswitzerland/en/home.html .
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community may have special rights, such as requesting their language names on road signs as seen in
Fribourg/Freiburg (fra/deu). Many names have different spellings in the different national languages,
such as Zürich in German, Zurich in French and Zurigo in Italian, and PCGN would suggest using the
spelling as found in official sources, in this case, Zürich. One exception is the town of Biel/Bienne
where this dual-language form is official and both names should be shown, separated by a solidus.
Languages
Switzerland is a multilingual country with three official languages: German, French and Italian;
Romansh is also an official language but is used by the federal authorities only if the information
affects the area where that language is spoken. The various dialects of these languages spoken in the
country can differ significantly from the written form. The two most widely spoken non-national
languages are English (5.8%) and Portuguese (3.5%). Both French and German are official languages
in the cantons of Bern, Fribourg and Valais; the official languages in Graubünden canton are German,
Romansh and Italian. The towns of Biel/Bienne (majority German) and Fribourg (majority French) are
officially bilingual French and German.
Swiss German (gsw) encompasses the Alemannic German dialects spoken in Switzerland and is the
most widely spoken language, with over 60% of the population using it as their main language.
Although Swiss German is the usual spoken language, Swiss Standard German is taught to all children
at school and is used for all formal written communication. Swiss Standard German is similar to
Standard German, with a few differences (known as Helvetisms) such as replacing the German eszett
(ß) with ‘ss’, the removal of uppercase umlauts and accented vowels (Ä, Ö, Ü, Á and É) and the use of
some loanwords from the other official languages e.g. the French word poulet rather than the
Standard German hähnchen for ‘chicken’.
French is the official language in the western part of Switzerland, and this area is known in French as
la Romandie. Spoken by nearly 23% of the Swiss population, the French spoken in Switzerland is similar
to standard French. Italian is spoken by 8% of the people and serves as the official language in Ticino
canton and the southern valleys of the canton of Graubünden. Romansh, spoken by around 10,000
people (0.5% of the Swiss population) in Graubünden, is also present in minor communities in Friuli
and South Tyrol in Italy.
Inventory of characters (and their Unicode encodings4):
As mentioned in ‘Languages’ above, many of the diacritics listed below (particularly upper-case
characters) are omitted when written in Swiss languages.
German contains the following letter-diacritic combinations in addition to the unmodified letters of
the basic Roman script:
Upper-case Unicode Lower-case Unicode
character encoding character encoding
Ä 00C4 ä 00E4
Ö 00D6 ö 00F6
Ü 00DC ü 00FC
4
See www.unicode.org
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French contains the following letter-diacritic combinations in addition to the unmodified letters of the
basic Roman script:
Upper-case Unicode Lower-case Unicode
character encoding character encoding
À 00C0 à 00E0
 00C2 â 00E2
Ç 00C7 ç 00E7
È 00C8 è 00E8
É 00C9 é 00E9
Ê 00CA ê 00EA
Ë 00CB ë 00EB
Î 00CE î 00EE
Ì 00CC ì 00EC
Ï 00CF ï 00EF
Ô 00D4 ô 00F4
Œ 0152 œ 0153
Ù 00D9 ù 00F9
Û 00DB û 00FB
Ü 00DC ü 00FC
Ÿ5 0178 ÿ 00FF
Italian contains the following letter-diacritic combinations in addition to the unmodified letters of the
basic Roman script:
Upper-case Unicode Lower-case Unicode
character encoding character encoding
À 00C0 á 00E1
À 00C0 à 00E0
È 00C8 è 00E8
Ò 00D2 ò 00F2
Ù 00D9 ù 00F9
Romansh contains the following letter-diacritic combinations in addition to the unmodified letters of
the basic Roman script:
Upper-case Unicode Lower-case Unicode
character encoding character encoding
À 00C0 à 00E0
È 00C8 è 00E8
Ò 00D2 ò 00F2
Ù 00D9 ù 00F9
5 Rarely encountered.
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Map of Switzerland
Map produced by PCGN for illustrative purposes only, and is not to be taken necessarily
as representing the views of the UK government on boundaries or political status.
Administrative structure
The 26 cantons (fra & ita: canton; deu: kanton, roh: chantun) function as the first-order administrative
divisions (ADM1s) in Switzerland. They are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. Each has
its own constitution, parliament, government, police and courts. Although the cantons of Bern,
Fribourg, Graubünden and Valais have more than one official language and therefore name, the PCGN
recommended names are those found in official sources.
Canton (ADM1)
ISO 3166-2 Canton official
PCGN recommended Location Canton centre
code languages
name
Aarau
47° 23' 44" N,
Aargau (47° 23' 23" N, CH-AG German
008° 10' 20" E
008° 03' 08" E)
Herisau
Appenzell 47° 21' 47" N,
(47° 22' 58" N, CH-AR German
Ausserrhoden 009° 16' 58" E
009° 16' 19" E)
Appenzell
47° 18' 45" N,
Appenzell Innerrhoden (47° 19' 42" N, CH-AI German
009° 24' 20" E
009° 24' 35" E)
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Canton (ADM1)
ISO 3166-2 Canton official
PCGN recommended Location Canton centre
code languages
name
Liestal
47° 30' 16" N,
Basel-Landschaft (47° 28' 58" N, CH-BL German
007° 42' 16" E
007° 44' 35" E)
Basel6
47° 34' 01" N,
Basel-Stadt (47° 33' 30" N, CH-BS German
007° 36' 55" E
007° 34' 24" E)
Bern
46° 52' 21" N, German,
Bern7 (46° 55' 00" N, CH-BE
007° 35' 44" E French
007° 28' 00" E)
Fribourg
46° 42' 30" N, French,
Fribourg8 (46° 47' 45" N, CH-FR
007° 06' 11" E German
007° 09' 17" E)
Genève
46° 11' 48" N, (Geneva)
Genève CH-GE French
006° 06' 38" E (46° 11' 44" N,
006° 08' 53" E)
Glarus
46° 58' 32" N,
Glarus (47° 02' 26" N, CH-GL German
009° 04' 23" E
009° 04' 05" E)
Chur10 German,
9 46° 39' 31" N,
Graubünden (46° 51' 24" N, CH-GR Romansh,
009° 37' 23" E
009° 31' 37" E) Italian
Delémont
47° 22' 22" N,
Jura (47° 21' 59" N, CH-JU French
007° 10' 05" E
007° 19' 44" E)
Luzern
47° 10' 00" N, (Lucerne)
Luzern CH-LU German
008° 10' 00" E (47° 05' 00" N,
008° 16' 00" E)
Neuchâtel
46° 59' 27" N,
Neuchâtel (46° 59' 35" N, CH-NE French
006° 47' 52" E
006° 55' 48" E)
Stans
46° 55' 39" N,
Nidwalden (46° 57' 29" N, CH-NW German
008° 24' 37" E
008° 21' 58" E)
Sarnen
46° 51' 31" N,
Obwalden (46° 53' 55" N, CH-OW German
008° 12' 35" E
008° 15' 02" E)
Sankt Gallen
47° 14' 22" N,
Sankt Gallen (47° 26' 11" N, CH-SG German
009° 09' 09" E
009° 23' 19" E)
Schaffhausen
47° 43' 38" N,
Schaffhausen (47° 41' 50" N, CH-SH German
008° 34' 45" E
008° 38' 06" E)
6 The spelling Basle is sometimes seen in English. The French spelling is Bâle.
7 Berne (fra), Berna (ita, roh).
8 Freiburg (deu).
9 Grigioni (ita), Grischun (roh), Grisons (fra).
10 Cuira (roh) Coire (ita).
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Canton (ADM1)
ISO 3166-2 Canton official
PCGN recommended Location Canton centre
code languages
name
Schwyz
47° 02' 26" N,
Schwyz (47° 01' 40" N, CH-SZ German
008° 44' 28" E
008° 39' 22" E)
Solothurn
47° 19' 44" N,
Solothurn (47° 12' 24" N, CH-SO German
007° 40' 12" E
007° 31' 00" E)
Frauenfeld
46° 17' 04" N,
Thurgau (47° 33' 36" N, CH-TG German
009° 04' 37" E
008° 53' 59" E)
Bellinzona
47° 10' 00" N,
Ticino (46° 11' 42" N, CH-TI Italian
008° 47' 26" E
009° 01' 43" E)
Altdorf
46° 47' 05" N,
Uri (46° 52' 50" N, CH-UR German
008° 38' 30" E
008° 38' 40" E)
Sion
46° 05' 00" N, French,
Valais11 (46° 13' 39" N, CH-VS
007° 50' 00" E German
007° 21' 20" E)
Lausanne
46° 37' 00" N,
Vaud (46° 32' 00" N, CH-VD French
006° 38' 42" E
006° 40' 00" E)
Zug
47° 09' 32" N,
Zug (47° 10' 21" N, CH-ZG German
008° 32' 19" E
008° 31' 03" E)
Zürich
47° 25' 00" N,
Zürich (47° 22' 00" N, CH-ZH German
008° 40' 00" E
008° 33' 00" E)
Other significant locations
PCGN
recommended Other names Feature Type Location
name
Mountains
Alpes (fra)
(Switzerland;
Alpen (deu)
Alps Liechtenstein; 46° 25′ 00″N
Alpi (ita)
(conventional name) France; Germany; 010° 00′ 00″E
Alps (roh)
Austria; Italy;
Alpe (slv)
Slovenia)
Lake
Lake Constance 47° 35′ 00″N
Bodensee (deu) (Austria; Germany;
(conventional name) 009° 28′ 00″E
Switzerland)
Grosser 46° 27′ 15″N
Glacier d'Aletsch (fra) Glacier
Aletschgletscher 008° 04′ 25″E
Mountains 47° 15′ 00″N
Jura
(France; Switzerland) 007° 15′ 00″E
11 Wallis (deu).
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PCGN
recommended Other names Feature Type Location
name
Welschland (deu)
42° 12′N
La Romandie Romandia (ita) Cultural region
006° 09′E
Romanda (roh)
46° 54′ 21″N
Lac de Neuchâtel Lake
006° 51′ 44″E
Lake Geneva
Lake 46° 26′ 40″N
Lac Léman (fra) (conventional name)
(France; Switzerland) 006° 32′ 31″E
Le Léman (fra)
Lake 45° 57′ 00″N
Lago Maggiore Lac de Locarno (fra)
(Italy; Switzerland) 008° 39′ 00″E
Swiss Plateau 47° 00′ 00″N
Mittelland Plateau
(conventional name) 007° 45′ 00″E
Rhein (deu) River
Rhin (fra) (Germany; France;
Rhine 51° 59′ 03″N
Rijn (nld) Switzerland;
(conventional name) 004° 04′ 57″E
Reno (ita) Netherlands; Austria;
Rain (roh) Liechtenstein)
Rotten (deu)
River 43° 19′ 58″N
Rhône Rodano (ita)
(Switzerland; France) 004° 50′ 42″E
Rodan (roh)
47° 07′ 22″N
Walensee Lake
009° 11′ 42″E
47° 13′ 18″N
Zürichsee Lake
008° 44′ 26″E
Sources
• BBC country profile: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17980650
• Bundesamt für Statistik (Federal Office for Statistics):
https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home.html
• CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/switzerland/
• Ethnologue: https://www.ethnologue.com/
• FCDO Geographical Names Index:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/geographical-names-and-information
• Swiss government website: https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html
• ISO Online Browsing Platform (OBP): https://www.iso.org/obp/ui
• PCGN Country Names list: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/country-names
• Unicode www.unicode.org
• US Board on Geographic Names Geographic Names Server: GNS Search & Download
WebApp (nga.mil)
Compiled by PCGN
www.gov.uk/pcgn
info@pcgn.org.uk
September 2023
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