Geometries in Political Statistics

The following section describes the geometries used to produce the output of the Statistics of Elections and Popular Votes by POKU FSO.

The results of federal votes and elections are provided for the following spatial dimensions:

  • Switzerland
  • Cantons
  • Districts
  • Communes (municipalities)
  • infra-communal counting districts (only used for popular votes)
  • Other spatial typologies (e.g. language region; only available for popular votes)

The basis of all spatial data (naming conventions, identification number) is the Swiss official commune register. Due to special circumstances in the political statistics, there are some differences regarding the municipality status, which are explained below.


Shared polling stations (Gemeinsame Urnen)

Some communes do not run their own polling station and count their ballots in another commune. For these communes with “shared polling stations”, it is not possible to determine which commune the votes originate from.

As of 01.07.2023, the following communes count their ballots in another commune:

FSO no. w/o p. station Commune w/o p. station FSO no. location of p. station Commune where p. station is located
877 Niedermuhlern 888 Wald (BE)
535 Deisswil bei Münchenbuchsee 553 Wiggiswil
408 Hellsau 410 Höchstetten
389 Meienried 383 Büren an der Aare
629 Oberhünigen 628 Zäziwil

For these communes, the results are published with the FSO identification number and name of the commune where the polling station is located. As a consequence, the communes without own polling stations are missing in the datasets published by POKU, even though they are included in the Swiss official commune register.


Special communes for Swiss citizens living abroad (Auslandschweizergemeinden)

In various cantons, special communes/districts (“extraterritorial” communes/districts) are designated for certain elections and votes. These special communes/districts are included in the datasets published by POKU, but are not included in the Swiss official commune register. 12 cantons maintain a special municipality to count the votes of the Swiss citizens living abroad separately:

Canton ID Canton FSO no. commune/district (old) FSO no. (as of October 2023) Commune/district
1 Zürich 9010 19010 ZH-Ausland-CH
3 Luzern 9030 19030 LU-Ausland-CH
4 Uri 9040 19040 UR-Ausland-CH
10 Fribourg / Freiburg 9100 19100 FR-CH de l’étranger
12 Basel-Stadt 9120 19120 BS-Ausland-CH
16 Appenzell Innerrhoden 9160 19160 AI-Ausland-CH
17 St. Gallen 9170 19170 SG-Ausland-CH
19 Aargau 9190 19190 AG-Ausland-CH
20 Thurgau 9200 19200 TG-Ausland-CH
22 Vaud 9220 19220 VD-CH de l’étranger
23 Valais / Wallis 9230 19230 VS-CH de l’étranger
25 Genève 9250 19250 GE-CH de l’étranger

Note that the FSO identification numbers for the communes/districts of the Swiss abroad have been reassigned. They are now composed as follows: <prefix 19>-<Canton ID FSO, (2 digits)>-<suffix 0>. The new system will be used for the first time for the federal elections in 2023. The old FSO numbers will be discontinued.

Further Information