The city of Bern (German: [bɛrn] (About this sound listen)) or Berne; Romansh: Berna About this sound [ˈbɛrnɐ]; Bernese German: Bärn [b̥æːrn]) is the de facto capital of Switzerland, referred to by the Swiss as their (e.g. in German) Bundesstadt, or "federal city".[3][note 1] With a population of 142,656 (March 2018), Bern is the fourth-most populous city[citation needed] in Switzerland.[4] The Bern agglomeration, which includes 36 municipalities, had a population of 406,900 in 2014.[5] The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000.[6] Bern is also the capital of the canton of Bern, the second-most populous of Switzerland's cantons.
