Cantons of Switzerland Cantons of Switzerland The 26 cantons of Switzerland (, , , ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the Waldstätte. Two further major steps in the development of the Swiss cantonal system are referred to by the terms "Acht Orte" ("Eight Cantons"; between 1353 and 1481) and "Dreizehn Orte" ("Thirteen Cantons",during 1513–1798); they were important intermediate periods of the Ancient Swiss Confederacy. Each canton, formerly also From 1833, there were 25 cantons, increasing to 26 after the
History of the Jews in Switzerland begun recording what is left of the dialect. According to the 2000 census, the Jewish population of Switzerland was at 17,914 (0.2% of the total population). In 2015 there were 17,250 Jewish people over the age of 15 in Switzerland (about 0.25% of the total). Although the number of Jews has remained fairly stable since the thirties, their percentage of the Swiss population has fallen considerably. This plateau is due to immigration, without which Swiss Jews could not have prevented a demographic setback, linked to an aging population and the many mixed marriages. Among the Cantons of Switzerland, only Zurich,