Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

Internet country code

GRC Country Code

   1’234.45

(where . indicates the decimal separator and ’ the thousands separator)

   dd.mm.yyyy

The 24-hour clock notation is mainly used:

   14:32
   14.32
   14,32

Switzerland has four official languages: German , French , Italian and Rhaeto-Romance . The percentage of people speaking each language as a mother tongue is as follows:

   German         63.6%
   French         19.2%
   Italian        7.6%
   Rhaeto-Romance 0.6%

The remaining 9 per cent speak other, non-indigenous, languages.

Swiss German differs from standard German and this needs to be taken into account in mailings.

Switzerland does not suffer the same kind of tension between members of different language groups as do many other multilingual European countries, and most Swiss speak more than one of the national languages. Although some kind of border can be drawn between the areas where the different languages are spoken, in many areas there is a great deal of mixing of peoples from the different language groups.

The smallest language group, Rhaeto-Romance, is only spoken in a few isolated Alpine valleys. Despite this, it exists in a number of different dialectical forms, and until recently there was no agreement of which form should be taken as a written standard. For this reason it is rare to come across Rhaeto-Romance in addresses or names.

In the German-speaking areas, the words zu Händen, abbreviated to z.H. or z.Hd. means ‘For the attention of’. In the French-speaking areas, this is written A l’Attention du. In the Italian-speaking areas it is written A.C.A. (Alla Cortese Attenzione) or simply as Cortese. One may also use All’ Attenzione d’ before a vowel, All’ Attenzione del before a male name or All’ Attenzione della before a female name.

   Note: This section last updated 14th August 2015

Double surnames are traditionally written with a hyphen and combine the surnames of a married couple with the husband’s surname in the first place and the wife’s in the second. The first surname, however, is the official family name, which will be inherited by their legitimate children. So, for example, if Werner Stauffacher is married with Gertrud Baumgarten, both may use the name Stauffacher-Baumgarten. Their children Heinrich and Verena, however, bear only the surname Stauffacher. More recently wives have been permitted by law to place their maiden name before the family name. This doubled name is written without a hyphen and is borne by the wife only. So, in the example above, the wife’s name is Gertrud Baumgarten Stauffacher, while her husband’s name is Werner Stauffacher. Again, the children’s names remain Heinrich and Verena Stauffacher.

For historical reasons, also related to the layout of Swiss keyboards, surnames/family don’t start with a capital letter with an umlaut, i.e. Ä, Ö or Ü. Ae, Oe or Ue are used instead.

In the German, French and Italian language areas, it is more correct, where the nature of a company is mentioned in its name, that this precedes the name of the company, thus:

   Bäcker Schmidt
   Boulangerie Dupont
   Fornaio Andretti

You will often, however, find these activity indications after the company name, thus:

   (Schmidt, Bäcker
   Schmidt (Bäcker)
   Dupont, Boulangerie
   Dupont (Boulangerie)
   Andretti, Fornaio
   Andretti (Fornaio)

   Tables of names can be acquired: given names , surnames/family names , family name prefixes , forms of address , job titles 

The following company types will be found in company address databases:

German:

   AG (Aktiengesellschaft)
   Einzelunternehmen
   Genossenschaft
   GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung)
   KG (Kommanditgesellschaft)
   OHG (Offene Handelsgesellschaft)
   Stiftung

French:

   Affaire Personnelle
   Raison de Commerce (sole proprietorship)
   SA (Société anonyme)
   Sarl (Société à Responsabilité limitée)
   Société en commandité simple
   Société en nom collectif

Italian:

   SA (Società Anonima)
   Sagl (Società a garanzia limitata)

These abbreviations will also often be encountered in company names:

   Gebr. = Gebrüder (brother, German)
   Ste. = Société (company, French)
   Cie. = Compagnie (company, French)

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

   Note: This section last updated 18th August 2021

Addresses will be written in German, French, Italian or Rhaeto-Romance according to the language of the region. In bilingual regions, addresses may be written in either or both languages. In German-speaking areas, addresses are written in this format:

   Form of address
   Recipient name
   Thoroughfare name thoroughfare type[ ]number
   postal code[ ]TOWN NAME{[ ]sorting code}

For example:

In Italian- and French-speaking areas, the address should be written in the following format:

   Recipient name 
   thoroughfare type[ ]Thoroughfare name[ ]number 
   postal code[ ]TOWN NAME{[ ]sorting code}

For example:

In French-speaking areas, the address may still also be found written in either of the following formats:

   Recipient name
   number[ ]thoroughfare type[ ]Thoroughfare name
   postal code[ ]TOWN NAME{[ ]sorting code}

or

   Recipient name
   number[, ]thoroughfare type[ ]Thoroughfare name
   postal code[ ]TOWN NAME{[ ]sorting code}

In larger settlements, the settlement name may be followed by a 1- or 2-digit sorting code.

In German-speaking areas, the general rule is that the thoroughfare type part of the street address is suffixed to the rest of the address, thus:

   Zentralstrasse
   Zwingliplatz

Swiss-German is formatted differently to “standard” German, and this also applies where the thoroughfare name refers to the real name of a place (e.g. a town name, a castle name, a forest name, etc.) or to a surname ending in -er. In Germany there would be a space between the thoroughfare name and the thoroughfare type, but in Switzerland these are also written as a single word:

   Zürcherstrasse 
   Badenerstrasse 

Where a complete personal name is used in the address, each word is written separately and there is a hyphen between the surname and the thoroughfare type, in this way:

   Willhelm Tell-Strasse 
   Karl Barth-Platz 
   Urs Graf-Strasse 

Surnames only are not covered by this exception. Thus:

   Durerstrasse 
   Calvinstrasse  

In streets beginning with prepositions or some adjectives (Am, An, Alter etc.), the preposition is followed by a space, thus:

   Alte Marktstrasse 3 

In the French and Italian language regions, thoroughfare types should correctly begin with a lower case letter. Prepositions, articles etc. (e.g. de, la etc.) should also be written without a capital letter. In both the French- and the Italian-speaking regions, the thoroughfare type is written before and separately from the thoroughfare name, thus:

   rue des Noirettes 
   route de Genève 
   via Ospedale 
   viale Cattaneo

A street name sign in Bern. Photograph: Graham Rhind

   A table containing information about the relevant position of elements within address blocks can be acquired 

Thoroughfare types

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

Other elements commonly found in address databases

   Note: This section last updated 2nd June 2024

This is written as Postfach, abbreviated to PF, in German; Case Postale, abbreviated to CP, in French; and Casella Postale, abbreviated to CP in Italian.

Post office box addresses post office box numbers may also be found as customers may pay for mail to be delivered to post office addresses for earlier receipt, in which case the address would have the format ^[2]:

   Klaus Steinmeier 
   Postfach 3000 
   BERN 3 

   Note: This section last updated 7th January 2024

Postal codes (Postleitzahl (PLZ), Numéro Postal d’Acheminement (NPA) or Numero di Avviamento Postale (NPA)) consist of a block of 4 digits. The initial digit indicates the largest postal regions (routing areas), and can be any number between 1 and 9. The second digit indicates the region within this area (routing district). The third digit indicates the route, and the fourth the destination locality. The postal code areas do not correspond well to administrative boundaries. Most municipalities have their own number, although some numbers are shared and some numbers cover more than one municipality. In the latter cases, the municipality containing the distribution centre is used in the address, with the actual habitation address on the preceding line. The postal code is placed before and on the same line as the town name. Larger population centres have an additional digit after the town name to indicate the sorting district. The streets belonging to each postal district are listed in the telephone book of the area concerned.

Because physical access to the settlement of Büsingen in Germany is easier through Switzerland, it been ascribed the following postal codes by the Swiss Post Office:

   8238 BÜSINGEN (German postal code 78266) 

Before 2020 this was also the case for Campione d’Italia (Italian postal code 22060), but Swiss Post handed over postal responsibilities to Poste Italiane at that time, and the Swiss code for this settlement (6911) is no longer valid ^[3].

Liechtenstein has been assigned the Swiss postal codes between 9485 and 9497.

As mentioned above, although most parts of Switzerland belong firmly to one or other language region, there are a number of areas where a language mix occurs. Rhaeto-Romance was, until recently, only a spoken language, so addresses in Rhaeto-Romance-speaking regions are usually written in German. This is a fluid situation and may change. Using the postal code, it is usually possible with a fair degree of accuracy to identify the language in which the address will be given, although, of course, the contents of the mailing should be done in the language of the recipient rather than the language of the area. The lists below show the postal codes belonging to each lan­guage area. Note that not all numbers in the sequence from 1000 to 9999 have been utilized; you can find out which postal codes do not exist by referring to the postal code lists published by the Swiss PTT.

French

1000-1589, 1602-1654, 1661-1699, 1701, 1720-1721, 1723-1728, 1730-1733, 1740-1782, 1785-1789, 1800-2074, 2087-2416, 2515-2525, 2534-2539, 2603-2746, 2748-2812, 2822-2826, 2828-2954, 3960-3968, 3971-3979

German

1655-1657, 1711-1719, 1734-1738, 1792-1795, 1797, 2076, 2512-2514, 2540-2578, 2813-2814, 3000-3274, 3282-3284, 3286-3954, 3969-3970, 3981-6493, 7000-7563, 7710, 8000-8236, 8239-9479, 9500-9658

Note that there are Rhaeto-Romance-speaking settlements in the following postal code areas: 70, 71, 72, 75.

(Note that postal codes 9485-9497 belong to Liechtenstein and not Switzerland.)

(Note that 8238 Büsingen is in Germany, German postal code = 78266.)

Italian

6500-6910, 6912-6999, 7602-7610, 7741-7748

(Note that 6911 Campione d’Italia is in Italy, Italian postal code = 22060.)

Predominantly French with German

1595 (Faourg), 1700 (Fribourg, German minority very small), 1722 (Bourgillon), 1729 (Bonnefontaine), 1783 (Pensier), 1784 (Courtepin), 1791 (Courtaman), 1796 (Courgevaux), 2075 (Thielle-Wavre), 2747 (Corcelles BE only - Seehof, with the same postal code, is German speaking), 2827 (Mervelier)

Predominantly German with French

2532 (Magglingen/Macolin), 2533 (Evilard), 3280 (Murten), 3285 (Galmiz)

Bilingual German/French

2500-2505 (Biel/Bienne)

Metadata containing postal code formatting rules, exceptions and regular expressions can be acquired

Switzerland - Postal code format graphic

Switzerland - Postal code format

Switzerland - Postal code specifics

Switzerland - Postal code regular expression

Switzerland - Postal code level of coverage

Switzerland - Postal code map

   Note: This section last updated 28th August 2015

In the French-speaking areas, place names consisting of more than one word are hyphenated with the exception of places beginning with the words le or la, where there is a space between this word and the next (other words in the same place name will be hyphenated).

As Switzerland has four official languages, most large towns have equivalent names in the other languages. The following lists give the correct town name in the local language and the equivalent names in the other official languages. As well as a list for each indigenous language, a list is provided of equivalent names in other European languages. Whatever the name of the town in the local language, the Swiss Post Office will process equally efficiently mail with towns names spelt in one of the other official languages.

The lists of alternative place names include the postal codes and the canton abbreviation for each of the settlements concerned.

German-speaking areas

For historical reasons, also related to the layout of Swiss keyboards, German-language placenames don’t start with a capital letter with an umlaut, i.e. Ä, Ö or Ü. Ae, Oe or Ue are used instead.

French-speaking areas

Italian-speaking areas

Rhaeto-Romance-speaking areas

NB: 2500-2505 Biel/Bienne is a bilingual (French/German) town, and therefore is usually known by its French and German names together - hence Biel/Bienne. Its Italian equivalent is Bienna. There is another town called Biel, with the postal code 4105, known as Biel-Benken.

Refer to Exonyms in Switzerland for full lists of place names in Switzerland in other languages.

   Alternate place name forms/postal code tables can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/settlements.htm 

   Other language place name data can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/otherlanguageplace.htm 

Switzerland is a federation of 26 cantons (of which 6 are demi-cantons) (cantons, singular - canton in French; cantoni, singular - cantone in Italian; kantone, singular - kanton in German). These, with their abbreviations and languages spoken, are listed below:

NB: *= demi-canton

(G) = German; (F) = French; (I ) = Italian; (R) = Rhaeto-Romance

(Demi-)Canton	Abbreviation + language(s)
Aargau	AG (G)
* Appenzell Innerrhoden	AI (G)
* Appenzell Ausserrhoden	AR (G)
* Basel Landschaft	BL (G)
* Basel Stadt	BS (G)
Bern/Berne	BE (G & F)
Fribourg	FR (F & G)
Genève	GE (F)
Glarus	GL (G)
Graubünden	GR (G & R & I)
Jura	JU (F)
Luzern	LU (G)
Neuchâtel	NE (F)
* Nidwalden	NW(G)
* Obwalden	OW(G)
Sankt Gallen	SG (G)
Schaffhausen	SH (G)
Schwyz	SZ (G)
Solothurn	SO (G)
Thurgau	TG (G)
Ticino	TI (I)
Uri	UR (G)
Vallais/Wallis	VS (F & G)
Vaud	VD (F)
Zug	ZG (G)
Zürich	ZH (G)

The canton abbreviations are often added to addresses after, and on the same line as, the town name, but they are not necessary provided that the postal code is used, and the Swiss PTT prefers that they are excluded from addresses.

Settlements with the abbreviation FL (Fürstentum Liechtenstein) following their name are not in Switzerland but in the neighbouring country of Liechtenstein.

Administrative districts graphic

Swiss area codes have 2 digits when called from abroad, and full numbers have 9 digits. Mobile numbers have the area codes between 74 and 79.