According to the 2000 census, the Zurich metropolitan area consists of the city of Zurich, ten additional urban areas or “agglomerations” and the individual city Einsiedeln, which altogether claim 1.66 million inhabitants in an area covering 2,103 square kilometres.
This corresponds to a population density of about 800 people per square kilometre. Included in the metropolitan area are 11 so-called core communes and another associated 210 municipalities in the seven cantons of Zurich, Aargau, Schwyz, Zug, Schaffhausen, Thurgau and St.Gallen.
The greater Zurich area is the economic centre of Switzerland. This is due in no small part to the strong presence of international companies located here to take advantage of an unusually favourable combination of important factors.