French-speaking Geneva is at the western end of Lake Geneva, surrounded on almost all sides by France. The canton has 103 kilometres of borders with Switzerland's neighbour and just 4.5 kilometres with the rest of the country.
 
The city itself has 202,000 inhabitants, while the canton has 498,221 (2017). The metropolitan Geneva area (which includes nine other towns) covers most of the canton and spreads across into France. Some 40% of the Geneva population is foreign.
 
Geneva is home to the headquarters of 37 international organisations, such as the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross. "International Geneva", as it is known, provides around one out of every ten jobs in the canton and contributes towards 11.3% of Geneva's gross domestic product (GDP), estimated at CHF5.8 billion (2016).
 
In all, some 31,987 international diplomats and civil servants are based in the city, of whom around 2,724 staff are working for 380 non-governmental organisations. Around 9,500 staff work for the United Nations family in Geneva, which is the largest concentration of UN personnel in the world. There are also 177 states represented by permanent diplomatic missions to the UN. Some 1,651 multinationals are also registered in Geneva, providing over 76,000 jobs.