TechnicalGIS

Switzerland GIS data sources

Region
Western Europe
ISO 3166
CH · CHE
Sources
20
Themes
15
Last verified

Where to download GIS data for Switzerland: 20 sources across 15 themes, led by swisstopo and Federal Statistical Office. 8 offer vector downloads such as Shapefile, GeoPackage or GeoJSON, 3 cover elevation including LiDAR. 2 are under an open licence. Every link was last checked on 18 Oct 2026.

Country atlases

National and OpenStreetMap sources for Switzerland

Boundaries & admin 4

Administrative boundary data for every country

  • swissBOUNDARIES3D (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    swisstopo · Switzerland

    National, cantonal, district and municipal boundaries.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoPackage
    Link
    swisstopo.admin.ch

    Verified

  • swissNAMES3D (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    swisstopo · Switzerland

    Gazetteer of geographic names with 3D positions.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    Shapefile, CSV
    Link
    swisstopo.admin.ch

    Verified

  • BFS GEOSTAT geodata (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Swiss Federal Statistical Office

    Federal statistical geodata: administrative and analytical boundaries, hectare grid statistics and land use.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Census & statistics
    • Land cover
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    bfs.admin.ch

    Verified

  • geoBoundaries administrative boundaries (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    William & Mary geoLab

    JSON API listing every available admin level with direct download links.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    Varies (open; see metadata)
    Formats
    GeoJSON, Shapefile, TopoJSON
    Link
    geoboundaries.org

    Verified

Elevation / DEM 3

Free DEM, LiDAR and elevation data for every country

  • swisstopo (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Federal Office of Topography

    swissALTI3D, SWISSIMAGE, swissBOUNDARIES3D and geological maps.

    • Elevation / DEM
    • Imagery
    • Boundaries & admin
    • Geology
    Licence
    Open (swisstopo terms)
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, GeoPackage, LAZ
    Link
    swisstopo.admin.ch

    Verified

  • swissALTI3D (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    swisstopo · Switzerland

    0.5 m and 2 m LiDAR-based digital terrain model of Switzerland.

    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, XYZ
    Link
    swisstopo.admin.ch

    Verified

  • swissSURFACE3D (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    swisstopo · Switzerland

    Classified LiDAR point cloud and digital surface model.

    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    LAZ
    Link
    swisstopo.admin.ch

    Verified

Imagery 1

Satellite and aerial imagery for every country

  • SWISSIMAGE 10 cm (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    swisstopo · Switzerland

    10 cm national orthophoto mosaic.

    • Imagery
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    swisstopo.admin.ch

    Verified

Land cover 1

Land cover datasets for every country

  • Swiss land use statistics (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Federal Statistical Office · Switzerland

    Hectare-grid land use and land cover sample survey repeated since 1979/85.

    • Land cover
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    CSV
    Link
    bfs.admin.ch

    Verified

Population 1

Gridded population data for every country

  • STATPOP population and households (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Federal Statistical Office · Switzerland

    Annual population and household statistics, including hectare-grid data.

    • Population
    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    CSV
    Link
    bfs.admin.ch

    Verified

Addresses & cadastre 2

Address and cadastral data for every country

  • cadastre.ch (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    swisstopo / Cadastral surveying · Switzerland

    Official cadastral surveying and the cadastre of public-law restrictions (PLR).

    • Addresses & cadastre
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    Interlis, WMS
    Link
    cadastre.ch

    Verified

  • geodienste.ch (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Conference of Cantonal Geoinformation Agencies · Switzerland

    Harmonised cantonal geodata such as cadastral survey, zoning and crop areas.

    • Addresses & cadastre
    • Open data portal
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    WMS, WFS, GeoPackage
    Link
    geodienste.ch

    Verified

Transport 2

Road, rail and transport data for every country

  • swissTLM3D (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    swisstopo · Switzerland

    Detailed 3D topographic landscape model: roads, rail, buildings, water and land cover.

    • Transport
    • Hydrology
    • Buildings
    • Land cover
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    GeoPackage, Shapefile
    Link
    swisstopo.admin.ch

    Verified

  • OpenStreetMap extract – Switzerland (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Geofabrik / OpenStreetMap contributors

    Daily OSM extract.

    • Transport
    • Boundaries & admin
    • Hydrology
    Licence
    ODbL 1.0
    Formats
    PBF, Shapefile
    Link
    download.geofabrik.de

    Verified

Climate & weather 1

Climate and weather data for every country

  • MeteoSwiss open data (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    MeteoSwiss · Switzerland

    Station observations, climate grids, radar and forecasts.

    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    CSV, NetCDF
    Link
    opendatadocs.meteoswiss.ch

    Verified

Geology 1

Geology data for every country

  • GeoCover geological vector data (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    swisstopo · Switzerland

    Harmonised 1:25 000 geological vector data.

    • Geology
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoPackage
    Link
    swisstopo.admin.ch

    Verified

Environment 1

Environmental and protected area data for every country

  • FOEN environmental data (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Federal Office for the Environment · Switzerland

    State of the environment data: water, air, biodiversity and natural hazards.

    • Environment
    • Natural hazards
    Licence
    opendata.swiss terms: open use, must provide the source
    Formats
    WMS, CSV
    Link
    bafu.admin.ch

    Verified

Open data portal 3

Open geospatial data portals for every country

  • opendata.swiss (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Swiss Federal Archives

    • Open data portal
    Licence
    Varies by dataset
    Link
    opendata.swiss

    Verified

  • map.geo.admin.ch (opens in a new tab)

    Web viewer Cost: Free

    Federal Spatial Data Infrastructure

    • Open data portal
    Licence
    Varies by dataset
    Link
    map.geo.admin.ch

    Verified

  • geocat.ch (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    swisstopo · Switzerland

    National geodata metadata catalogue.

    • Open data portal
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    geocat.ch

    Verified

Global datasets that cover Switzerland

Worldwide and continental layers that include Switzerland, useful where national data is missing, restricted or inconsistent across borders.

Boundaries & admin
Elevation / DEM
Imagery
Land cover
Buildings
Population
Census & statistics
Addresses & cadastre
Transport
Hydrology
Climate & weather
Natural hazards
Geology
Environment
Open data portal

Browse all 127 global datasets

Tutorials that use this kind of data

Neighbouring countries