Basel ( or ; or less often used
Basle; ; ; ; ) is
Switzerland's
third most populous city (behind
Zürich and
Geneva) with about 195,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in
France and
Germany. In 2014, the Basel agglomeration was the third largest in Switzerland with a population of 537,100 in 74 municipalities in Switzerland and an additional 53 in neighboring countries (municipal count as of 2000). The tri-national
Basel metropolitan area has around 830,000 inhabitants in 226 municipalities.