Northwestern Switzerland

Northwestern Switzerland (German: Nordwestschweiz, French: Suisse du Nord-Ouest, Italian: Svizzera nordoccidentale) is a special area in Switzerland used by the Federal Statistical Office for counting and studying the country. This area is part of a bigger system called NUTS, which helps organize regions in Switzerland.

It includes three main parts of Switzerland called cantons: Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, and Aargau. These areas are known for their cities, farms, and history.

This group of areas is different from an older way of thinking about Northwestern Switzerland, which also included parts of another area called Solothurn and only some of Aargau. This shows how people can group places in different ways for different reasons.

Sub-division

Switzerland is divided into 26 cantons, which are the main parts of the country. The Federal Statistical Office groups these cantons into larger areas for studying the country, using directions like north, south, east, and west. These larger groups are called NUTS-2 statistical regions of Switzerland and include several cantons together.

Geography

Northwestern Switzerland is located in the north-western part of the country. It borders Grand Est in France to the west and Baden-Württemberg in Germany to the north. The area includes a special zone called the Basel Trinational Eurodistrict, where Switzerland, France, and Germany come together near the Rhine valley and the Alsace plain. The three countries meet in the middle of the Rhine River, just north of the Dreiländereck. This region covers 1,958.2 km² (756.1 sq mi) and is home to over 1.22 million people.

It includes the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, and Aargau. This area is different from the traditional region also called Nordwestschweiz in German, which includes Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft, some northern parts of Solothurn, and only parts of Aargau.

S.No.	Arms	Code	Name	Established	Capital	GDP (2020) in million CHF	GDP per capita (2020) in CHF	Population (2007)	Area (km2)	Density (per km2)	Municipalities (2018)	Official languages
1		AG	Aargau	1803	Aarau	43,590	63,177	694,072	1,404	494	212
2		BS	Basel-Stadt	1501 (as Basel until 1999)	Basel	37,168	189,354	201,156	37	5,444	3	German
3		BL	Basel-Landschaft	1501 (as Basel until 1999)	Liestal	20,567	70,866	292,955	518	566	86	German

Economy

The area in northwestern Switzerland is quite developed economically, with Basel being a key economic center of the country. Important industries here include pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and textiles. The economic growth began in the early 1900s after mineral deposits were discovered, which helped set up many industries in Pratteln. The building of the Hauenstein Railway linking Basel to Olten also boosted the economy by connecting the region to other parts of the country. Liestal is an important town for textile production and is among the most industrialized places in the area.