Lakes of Bern 2026: 86, more over 10 ha than any canton

Graubünden has almost three times as many lakes. Where is Bern still ahead? ↓

Graubünden has almost three times as many lakes as Bern. Yet no canton has more large lakes of ten hectares or more than Bern: 29. They range from Lake Biel at the foot of the Jura up into the Alps.

Number of lakes in Bern: 86

86 lakes of half a hectare or more, and yet the national map shows 1937 bodies of standing water in Bern. The gap is not imprecision; it is a way of counting.

Anyone reading a different figure has almost always drawn a different line: count every water surface and Bern has 1937; count only lakes over one square kilometre and you get 8. Even a plain name such as "Weiher" counts as official: what decides is the entry in the swissNAMES3D gazetteer. Namesakes more than 50 m apart count separately, which is why "Dürrsee" in Lauenen appears 3 times in the list. Our count states where the line is, so it can be checked.

Lake Finder: find any lake in Bern

Largest lake in Bern: Thunersee

The largest lake touching Bern is the Lac de Neuchâtel (215.1 km²), but only 0.9% of its surface lies in the canton. The largest lake belonging entirely to the canton is the Thunersee: 47.8 km² at 558 m.

Highest lake in Bern: Lac des Faverges

Between the highest and the lowest lake in Bern lie 2288 metres of elevation; only Valais and Ticino have a wider range. At the top is the Lac des Faverges in Lenk at 2715 m, at the bottom the Alte Aare at 427 m.

The canton's median lake sits at 1642 m. Elevation is the water level in the landscape model; for reservoirs it varies with how full they are. 12 of the 86 lakes in the canton have a dam or embankment (structures in swissTLM3D).

Shared lakes: which lakes Bern shares

Bern shares 7 of its 86 lakes, 7 with other cantons and 1 with other countries, but they make up only 31% of its lake surface: most of the water in the canton belongs to it alone.

List of lakes in Bern

83 of the 86 lakes in Bern together cover less area than a single lake, Brienzersee: 18.1 km² against 29.8 km². An official name does not make a lake: 34 of the 120 named bodies of water in Bern measure less than half a hectare. The list shows all of them by area, the 86 lakes first, the smaller ones marked.

Lakes by size: 46 of 86 under 5 ha

46 of the 86 lakes in Bern are smaller than five hectares. 29 are larger than ten hectares, which puts Bern at rank 1 of the 26 cantons.

Measured by area, the small lakes almost vanish: the 46 of the 86 lakes of half a hectare or more that stay under five hectares together cover less than 1% of the lake surface in Bern.

Lakes by municipality: Guttannen has the most

The municipality with the most lakes is not on the canton's largest lake (Thunersee): Guttannen, with 11 lakes, all above 1700 m. Counted are lakes lying entirely within the canton and in no more than two municipalities; a large lake belongs to many. The Lake Finder can search by municipality.

• Guttannen11Grimselsee · Oberaarsee · Räterichsbodensee · Gelmersee · Triebteseewli · Gröebeseewli · Wannisbortsee · Bänzlouwiseewleni · Bänzlouwiseewleni · Bächlisee · Remersee
• Innertkirchen9Gouwlisee · Engstlensee · Triftsee · Mattenalpsee · Steisee · Seebodensee · Gadenlouwisee · Tälliseewli · Mälchseeli
• Lenk6Iffigsee · Flueseeli · Rezligletscherseeli · Rohresee · Rawilseeleni · Rawilseeleni
• Brienz (BE)4Hinderburgseewli · Hagelseewli · Häxeseewli · Jäägglisglunten
• Kandersteg4Oeschinensee · Tälliseewli · Rossbode See · Arveseeli
• Lauterbrunnen4Sulsseeli · Grauseeli · Obers Sulsseeli · Hundssee
• Boltigen2Walopsee · Hinterer Walopsee
• Diemtigen2Ägelsee · Meiefallseeli
• Erlenbach im Simmental2Oberstockesee · Hinderstockesee
• Forst-Längenbühl2Dittligsee · Geistsee
• Lauenen2Louwenesee · Dürrsee
• Zweisimmen2Seebergsee · Forellensee

Lake names in several languages

Some lakes in Bern carry official names in several national languages. They come from swisstopo's gazetteer; none is our translation.

• Lac de Neuchâtel · Neuenburgersee · Lago di Neuchâtel · Lai da Neuchâtel
• Thunersee · Lac de Thoune · Lago di Thun · Lai da Thun
• Bielersee · Lac de Bienne · Lago di Bienne · Lai da Bienna
• Brienzersee · Lac de Brienz · Lago di Brienz · Lai da Brienz

More lake pages

Written by

Marco Gisler

ConvivaPlus Editor · Data & Switzerland

Writes about Switzerland in figures – official data recalculated, counting method explained.

• Population
• 26 cantons
• Waterways
• Official data

Researched & sourced · for Switzerland

Profile & all articles →·Our editorial teamUpdated 25.10.2026

Source: swisstopo (swissTLM3D, swissNAMES3D, swissBOUNDARIES3D, 2026 edition), analysis by ConvivaPlus. Switzerland as a whole: 891 lakes out of 17'873 water surfaces; parts with the same name no more than 50 m apart count as one lake. Area = water surface at the shoreline of the landscape model; reference works using a different shoreline or water level sometimes give other values.