Definition
GEO1_CH identifies the household's canton within Switzerland in all sample years. Cantons are the first level administrative units of the country. GEO1_CH is spatially harmonized to account for political boundary changes across census years. Some detail is lost in harmonization. A GIS map (in shapefile format), corresponding to GEO1_CH can be downloaded from the GIS Boundary files page in the IPUMS International web site.
The full set of geography variables for Switzerland can be found in the IPUMS International Geography variables list. For cross-national geographic analysis on the first and second major administrative level refer to GEOLEV1, and GEOLEV2. More information on IPUMS-International geography can be found here.