Districts of Switzerland

In the federally constituted Switzerland, each canton is completely free to decide its own internal organisation.

Therefore, there exists a variety of structures and terminology for the subnational entities between canton and municipality, loosely termed districts.

However, for historical reasons districts in cantons Grisons and Schwyz are their own legal entities with jurisdiction over tax and often have their own Landsgemeinde.

Seven of the 26 cantons – Uri, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Glarus, Zug, Basel-City and Geneva – have always existed without the district level of government.

An eighth one, Appenzell Innerrhoden, uses no intermediate level either, but calls its lowest-level subdivisions Bezirke, although they are functionally equivalent to municipalities elsewhere.