Switzerland General Information

Official Name: Known officially as the Swiss Confederation, or commonly as Switzerland.

Capital: Bern is the capital of Switzerland. The city lies in the Swiss plateau within the Canton of Bern, West of the center of Switzerland and North of the Bernese Alps.

Location: Switzerland is located in Central Europe, East of France and North of Italy. Germany and Austria also share borders with Switzerland.

Size: The total land area of Switzerland is 41,277 square kilometers and this ranks 135th globally. The size is slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey in the USA.

Climate: The climate in Switzerland is temperate, however, this will vary with altitude. Winters in Switzerland are cold, cloudy, rainy and snowy, summers tend to be cool to warm, cloudy and humid with occasional showers.

Population: Switzerland has an estimated population of 7.6 million people and ranks 94th globally. The country has a population growth rate of 0.276%.

Life expectancy at birth: The average life expectancy at birth for citizens of Switzerland is 80.85 years, ranking at 11th globally. Females have a longer average life span at 83.83 years, while Males average at 78.03 years from birth.

Prevalence of HIV/AIDS: The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Switzerland is about 0.6%, placing 69th globally. This means that around 25,000 people are living with the disease in the country.

Major Illnesses: Potential health risks in Switzerland include Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Rabies, Tetanus, Tick-borne encephalitis.

Ethnic Groups: Switzerland is mainly comprised of German ethnics at 65% of the population. Other ethnic groups include French at 18%, Italian at 10%, Romansch at 1% and others at 6%.

Languages: There are four national and official languages in Switzerland, namely German at 63.7%, French at 20.4% Italian at 6.5% and Romansch at 0.5%. Other languages include Serbo-Croatian at 1.5%, Albanian at 1.3%, Portuguese at 1.2%, Spanish at 1.1%, English at 1%, other at 2.8%.

Religion:The major religion in Switzerland is Roman Catholic accounting for 41.8% of the population. Other religions include Islam at 4.3%, Orthodox at 1.8%, other Christian at 0.4%, other at 1%, unspecified at 4.3% and none at 11.1%.

Government: The Government of Switzerland is a confederation but similar in structure to a federal republic. The country's Government is a team consisting of seven members with equal rights. Each member of the Government acts as head of a department of the federal administration, but all major Government decisions are taken in weekly Government conferences either by consensus or by majority voting of all seven members. The members of Switzerland's federal Government are usually (re-)elected every four years.

Head of State: The Head of State in Switzerland is the President Hans-Rudolf Merz, who is the presiding member of the Swiss Federal Council, Switzerland's seven-member executive cabinet. Elected by the Federal Assembly for one year, the President of the Confederation chairs the meetings of the Federal Council and undertakes special representational duties.

Head of Government: The Head of Government in Switzerland is the President Hans-Rudolf Merz.

Military: The Federal Armed Forces of Switzerland consist of two branches namely the Land Forces and Swiss Air Force. The suitable age for male compulsory military service is 19 years of age, for voluntary male and female military service it is 18 years of age. Male is obliged to do military service for at least 260 days in the armed forces. Conscripts receive 18 weeks of mandatory training followed by seven 3-week intermittent recalls for training during the next 10 years.

Economy: The economy of Switzerland is one of the world's most stable economies. Switzerland is traditionally considered a safe haven for foreign investors due to its political neutrality, an elaborate banking system with a high degree of bank secrecy, and it has maintained its currency's value through the instabilities of surrounding Europe's wars and crises.

Major Swiss industries including engineering and machinery, electronics, metals, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, are renowned for their precision and quality and contribute to more than half of the country's export revenues. In agriculture, Switzerland is self-sufficient for almost two-thirds of its food and exports several world-famous delicacies, yet it also imports about US$6 billion worth of agricultural commodities annually. Tourism, banking and insurance are traditionally leading sectors in the economy. Swiss trading companies have good expertise in many parts of the world, such as Eastern Europe, the Far East, Africa and the Middle East. The country is the seat of many international inter-governmental and private organizations, such as the United Nations (UN) and its associated organizations and the International Red Cross.