National Council of Switzerland

The National Council of Switzerland is the large Chamber of the parliament and has 200 seats. Each canton is a constituency. The number of deputies of each constituency depends on the population of the canton. Zürich, which is the largest canton of Switzerland, has 34 seats. Uri, Glarus, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Appenzell Innerrhoden, on the other hand, each have only one seat. For cantons with more than one seat proportional representation is used.

There are currently (2002) 47 women in the National Council (23.5%).

The National Council is elected by the Swiss citizens, as is most of the Swiss Council of States. There were 4.6 million citizens in 2002.

Abbr	Canton	Number of Seats
ZH	Zürich	34
BE	Bern	26
LU	Lucerne	10
UR	Uri	1
SZ	Schwyz	4
OW	Obwalden (Obwald)	1
NW	Nidwalden (Nidwald)	1
GL	Glarus	1
ZG	Zug	3
FR	Fribourg	7
SO	Solothurn	7
BS	Basel-Stadt (Basel-City)	5
BL	Basel-Landschaft (Basel-Country)	7
SH	Schaffhausen	2
AR	Appenzell Ausserrhoden (Appenzell Outer Rhodes)	1
AI	Appenzell Innerrhoden (Appenzell Outer Rhodes)	1
SG	St. Gallen (St. Gall)	12
GR	Graubünden (Grisons)	5
AG	Aargau (Argovia)	15
TG	Thurgau (Thurgovia)	6
TI	Ticino	8
VD	Vaud	18
VS	Valais	7
NE	Neuchâtel	5
GE	Geneva	11
JU	Jura	2

See also: Presidents of the National Council of Switzerland.