The canton is bilingual, with French spoken by more than two thirds of the citizens and German by a little more than a quarter.

The area of the canton is 1,669 square kilometers (644.4 sq mi), including the small enclaves.

Together with its tributaries it drains most of the lands in the canton, then joins the river Aare.

The river Broye drains the west of the canton and flows northeast into Lake Morat (Murtensee).

The southwest part of the canton is drained by the river Veveyse, which flows south into Lake Geneva (French: Le Léman).

Other centres of light industry are Bulle, Villars-sur-Glâne, Düdingen (Guin), Murten (Morat) and Estavayer-le-Lac.

These five centers have also a large number of established small and medium-sized businesses, many of which are in the service sector.

The canton of Fribourg is well connected to other areas of Switzerland with motorways A1, A12 and fast rail links.

The main railway between Geneva and Lausanne in the south west to Bern and Zürich connects Fribourg with other centres of the country.