The 26 cantons of Switzerland [ note 1 ] are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The term Kanton has been widely used since the 19th century. The number of cantons was increased to 19 with the Act of Mediation , with the recognition of former subject territories as full cantons. The Federal Treaty of increased the number to 22 due to the accession of former associates of the Old Swiss Confederacy.
The canton of Jura acceded as the 23rd canton with its secession from Bern in The areas of the cantons vary from 37 km 2 15 sq.
Basel-Stadt to 7, km 2 sq. Grisons ; the populations as of range from 16, Appenzell Innerrhoden to 1. The term canton , now also used as the English term for administrative subdivisions of other countries, originates in French usage in the late 15th century recorded in Fribourg in , [ 4 ] from a word for "edge, corner", at the time the literal translation of Early Modern High German ort.
In the Old Swiss Confederacy, the term Ort plural: Orte was in use from the early 15th century as a generic term for the member cantons.
The formulaic Stette und Waldstette for the members of the early confederacy is recorded in the midth century, used interchangeably with Stett und Lender 'cities and lands', 'city cantons and rural cantons' until the late 15th century. Abolished in the Helvetic Republic, the term 'Stand' was revived in and remains in use today. The French term canton adopted into German after , and then only in occasional use until the early 19th century: prominent usage of Ort and Stand gradually disappeared in German-speaking Switzerland from the time of the Helvetic Republic.
