CHE (Switzerland)

Switzerland’s ADM1 layer is divided into 20 cantons and 6 demicantons. These cantons have broad political power, and act like small sovereign nations with the ability to dictate its internal organization. Switzerland’s cantons, not the central government, have the authority to determine its ADM2 level, known as districts, constituencies, bezirks, Ämter, Amtsbezirke, or distretto based on the canton. Because of this canonical authority, there is not a contiguous boundary at this level, and there are confounding sources regarding the overall ADM2 level. The website opendata.swiss, Switzerland’s public portal for government data, notes that “The cantons of Geneva, Uri, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Glarus, Zug, Basel-Stadt and Appenzell Innerrhoden are not divided into districts”. This claim is contradicted by information on the individual canton websites for Geneva and Basil, which both indicate an ADM2 level. So, while we used the data available from Switzerland’s central government public data portal, we acknowledge that individual cantons may have internal organization that conflicts with the shapefile provided by geoBoundaries.