Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The sovereign state is a federal republic situated in western, central and southern Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of (land area ). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the
Cantons of France the number of cantons drastically. This law came into effect at the French departmental elections in March 2015. Before the cantonal reform, there were 4,032 cantons. The 2013 reform law also changed the representation of the cantons in the departmental councils: each canton is now represented by a man and a woman. The number of "cantons" varies from one "département" to another; the Territoire de Belfort, for example, has 9, while Nord has 41. Cantons of France The cantons of France are territorial subdivisions of the French Republic's arrondissements and departments. Apart from their role as organizational units in certain