page_title: Geography of Switzerland
section_title: Western or Central Europe?
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Switzerland / Western or Central Europe?
caption_attribution_description: Asturianu: Puntos estremos d'Europa. Bosanski: Krajnje tačke Evrope (bez ostrva Floresa). Català: Punts extrems d'Europa. Deutsch: Mögliche geographische Extrempunkte Europas. Ελληνικά: Χάρτης με τα ακρότατα σημεία της Ευρώπης. English: Extreme points of Europe and two of its geographic centres: the Saaremaa island in western Estonia, and Babruysk in Belarus. Español: Puntos extremos de Europa y sus centros. Eesti: Euroopa äärmuspunktid (ilma Floresi saareta). Français&#160;: Carte de l'Europe (en vert), présentant en rouge certaines extrémités territoriales. Magyar: Európa szélsőséges pontjai. Aktuális mérések szerinti szélső pontok, illetve a központok. Italiano: Punti estremi dell'Europa. 日本語: ヨーロッパの端（アゾレス諸島を除く）. 한국어: 유럽의 극점 (플로르스 섬 제외). Nederlands: Geografische extremen van Europa. Polski: Skrajne punkty Europy i wynikające z przyjęcia różnych kryteriów przykładowe "środki Europy". Português: Pontos extremos da Europa. Rumantsch: Extrems geografics pussaivels. Română: Punctele extreme ale Europei. Slovenčina: Extrémne body Európy. Slovenščina: Skrajne točke Evrope.
context_page_description: The geography of Switzerland encompasses the geographical features of Switzerland, a mountainous and landlocked country located in Western and Central Europe. Switzerland is world-famous for the beauty and uniqueness of its landscapes. It is surrounded by 5 countries: Austria and Liechtenstein to the east, France to the west, Italy to the south and Germany to the north. Switzerland has a maximum north–south length of 220 kilometres and an east–west length of about 350 kilometres.
  Switzerland is well known for the Alps in the south and south east. North of the Alps, the Swiss Plateau runs along the east–west axis of the country. Most of the population of Switzerland lives on the rolling hills and plains of the plateau. The smaller Jura Mountains are located on the north west side of the plateau. Much of the northern border with Germany follows the Rhine, through the Rhine enters Switzerland near Schaffhausen. The eastern border with Germany and a portion of Austria is drawn through Lake Constance. A portion of the southwest border with France is drawn through Lake Geneva.
  Switzerland is divided into 26 sovereign cantons.
context_section_description: No subdivision of Europe is universally accepted, therefore naming the different European regions and defining the borders between them is subject to debates. Depending on the definition chosen, Switzerland can be either part of Western or Central Europe: both concepts depend heavily on context and carry cultural, economic and political connotations.
  The term "Western Europe" commonly indicates the region west of the Baltic and Adriatic Sea. Countries described as Western European (including Switzerland, according to the United Nations Statistics Division and the National Geographic Society) are invariably high-income developed countries, characterized by stable democratic political systems, mixed economies combining the free market with aspects of the welfare state. On the other hand, the term "Central Europe" refers to the region between Western and Eastern Europe. Central European countries (including Switzerland in the westernmost part, according to the World Factbook and various encyclopedias such as Britannica and Columbia) show high disparities with regard to income but possibly share similar cultural characteristics. The concept came back into use by the end of the Cold War, which had divided Europe politically into the Western World and the East Bloc, splitting Central Europe in half. Before World War I, the German-speaking world used the somewhat-related term Mitteleuropa (from German: Middle Europe) for an area larger than most conceptions of Central Europe, notably encompassing Switzerland among the other German-speaking countries.
  Physically, Switzerland is situated approximately in the middle of the portion of Europe west of the Carpathian Mountains. Defining the Ural Mountains as the eastern limit of the continent, Switzerland is located within the western third of Europe, approximately 15 degrees of longitude away from the extreme west and 50 degrees away from extreme east. Phytogeographically, the part of Switzerland that lies north of the Alps belongs to Central Europe, while the part south of the Alps belongs to Southern Europe.
caption: Current measurements of extreme points of Europe and its centres.
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