Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland Each of the 26 modern cantons of Switzerland has an official flag and a coat of arms. The history of development of these designs spans the 13th to the 20th centuries. The cantons are listed in their order of precedence given in the federal constitution. This reflects the historical order of precedence of the Eight Cantons in the 15th century, followed by the remaining cantons in the order of their historical accession to the confederacy. "Standesfarben" were used to identify the (historical) cantons when the full banner was not available for display, although
Cantons of Switzerland secession of the canton of Jura from Bern in 1979. The areas of the cantons vary from 37 km (canton of Basel-Stadt) to 7,105 km (canton of Grisons); the populations vary from 16,003 (canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden) to 1,487,969 (canton of Zürich). The term "canton", now also used as English term for administrative subdivisions of other countries, originates in French usage in the late 15th century (recorded in Fribourg in 1467), from a word for "edge, corner", at the time the literal translation of Early Modern High German "ort". After 1490, "canton" was increasingly used in French and Italian documents