Switzerland sits at the crossroads of several major European cultures, which have heavily influenced the country's languages and cultural practices. Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. The German spoken in the German speaking part of Switzerland is predominantly a range of Swiss dialects, but newspapers and some broadcasts use High German as used in Germany. Many Swiss speak more than one language. English is widely known, especially among professionals. World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the six inhabited continents of the Earth. ... Romansh (also spelled Rumantsch, Romansch or Romanche) is any of the various Rhaetian languages spoken in Switzerland. ... The German speaking part of Switzerland (German: Deutschschweiz) comprises about 65 % of Switzerland (North Western Switzerland, Eastern Switzerland, Central Switzerland, most of the Swiss plateau and the greater part of the Swiss Alps) In most Swiss cantons, German is the only official language (Aargau, Appenzell, Basel, Glarus, Lucerne, Nidwalden, Obwalden... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Subdivisions Central German Upper German High German (in German, Hochdeutsch) is any of several German dialects spoken in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxembourg (as well as in neighbouring portions of Belgium, France (Alsace), Italy, Poland, and Romania (Transylvania) and in some areas of former colonial settlement, for example in... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

More than 75% of the population live in the central plain, which stretches between the Alps and the Jura Mountains and from Geneva in the southwest to the Rhine River and Lake Constance in the northeast. Resident foreigners and temporary foreign workers make up about 20% of the population. The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ... Looking towards Lelex from near to Crêt de La Neige The Jura folds are located north of the main Alpine orogenic front and are being continually deformed, accommodating the northwards compression due to Alpine folding. ... Geneva (pronunciation //; French: Genève //, German:   //, Italian: Ginevra) is the second most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich), and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland). ... The Rhine canyon (Ruinaulta) in Graubünden in Switzerland Length 1. ... Map of the Bodensee; Schweiz is Switzerland, Deutschland is Germany, and Osterreich is Austria. ...

Almost all Swiss are literate. Switzerland's 13 institutes of higher learning enrolled 99,600 students in the academic year of 2001-02. About 25% of the adult population hold a diploma of higher learning. 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

The constitution guarantees freedom of worship and the different religious communities co-exist peacefully.

Switzerland consistently ranks high on quality of life indices, including per capita income, concentration of computer and internet usage per capita, insurance coverage per individual, and health care rates. For these and many other reasons, such as the four languages, it serves as an excellent test market for businesses hoping to introduce new products into Europe.

Evolution of the population of Switzerland 1970-2005. Data from Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2005; number of inhabitants in thousands.

Image File history File links Switzerland_demography_1970-2005. ... Image File history File links Switzerland_demography_1970-2005. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Population

Total of registered residents (numbers relate to 31 December): December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

• 7,489,370 (2005)
• 7,415,102 (2004)
• 7,255,653 (2001)
• ca. 3,300,000 (1900)
• ca. 1,700,000 (1815)

2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ... The Battle of New Orleans 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Age structure

0-20 years: 1,6 million (22%)

20-64 years: 4,6 million (62%)

65 and over: 1,2 million (16%)

Data (2005 est.) 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

As population growth curbs, the percentage of elderly people increases. In July 2006, the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics published a projection estimating that by 2050, one in three adult Swiss will be of retirement age (as opposed to one in five in 2005). Total population was projected to stagnate in 2036 at around 8.1 million and fall slightly to 8 million in 2050. The predicted age structure for 2050 is:

0-20 years: 1,4 million (18%)

20-64 years: 4,4 million (55%)

65 and over: 2,2 million (27%)

Population growth rate

0.3% (2000 est.) This article is about the year 2000. ...

Birth rate

10.4 births/1,000 population (2000 est.) This article is about the year 2000. ...

Death rate

8.75 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.) This article is about the year 2000. ...

Net migration rate

1.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.) This article is about the year 2000. ...

Sex ratio

Data: (2000 est.) This article is about the year 2000. ...

Infant mortality rate:

4.53 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.) This article is about the year 2000. ...

Life expectancy at birth

Data: (2000 est.) World map of life expectancy Life expectancy is a statistical measure defined as the expected (mean) survival of human beings based upon a number of criteria such as gender and geographic location. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

Total fertility rate

1.47 children born/woman (2000 est.) This article is about the year 2000. ...

Nationality

The number of registered resident foreigners was 1,001,887 (16.17%) in 1970. This amount decreased to 904,337 (14.34%) in 1979, and has increased steadily since that time, passing the 20% mark during 2001 and rising to 1,524,663 (20.56%) in 2004. 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 2003, 35,424 persons were granted Swiss citizenship, compared to 8,658 in 1990.

In 2000, 1.3 million resident foreigners (86.9%, or 17.8% of the total population [1]), had European citizenship (Ex-Yugoslavian: 362,000; Italian: 322,000; Portuguese: 142,000; German: 112,000; Spanish: 84,000; Turkish: 83,000; French: 63,000; Austrian: 30,000), 92,000 residents were from Asia, 51,000 from the Americas, 50,000 from Africa and 3,000 from Oceania. This article is about the year 2000. ... This article is about the continent. ... Official language Serbo-Croatian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Bosnian, Macedonian Capital Belgrade Largest city Belgrade Area (1991)  - Total  - % water Ranked xxst 255,804 km² Negligible Population  - Total (2004)  - Density Ranked xxth 20,522,972 80/km² Currency Yugoslav dinar Time zone  - in summer CET (UTC+1) CEST (UTC+2) National anthem... World map showing the location of Asia. ... World map showing the Americas The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... For the fictional superstate in George Orwells novel, see Oceania (Nineteen Eighty-Four). ...

In 2004, 623,100 Swiss citizens (8.9%) lived abroad, the largest group in France (166,200), followed by the USA (71,400) and Germany (70,500). 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Religions

In 2000, 5.78 million residents (79.2%, compared to 93.8% in 1980) were Christian (Roman Catholic 41.8%, Protestant 35.3%, Orthodox 1.8%). 809,800 (11.1%, compared to 3.8% in 1980) were without any religious affiliation. 310,800 (4.3%) were Muslim (compared to 0.9% in 1980), 17,900 (0.2%) were Jewish. This article is about the year 2000. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... A Christian is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as the Christ. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The Eastern Orthodox Church is a religious organization which claims to be the direct continuation of the original Christian body, founded by Jesus and his Twelve Apostles. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... This article describes some ethnic, historic, and cultural aspects of the Jewish identity; for a consideration of the Jewish religion, refer to the article Judaism. ...

Languages

Official languages of Swiss cantons: German in gold, French in blue, Italian in green, and Romansh in maroon. Cantons with two or more official languages show the minority official languages as dots.

Main languages in Switzerland^[1]:
German (63.7%),
French (20.4%),
Italian (6.5%),
Romansh (0.5%)

The four official languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Rumantsch. Native speakers number about 64% (4.6 million) for German (mostly Swiss German dialects), 20% (1.5 million, mostly Swiss French, but including some Franco-Provençal dialects) for French, 7% (0.5 million; including Lombardic dialects) for Italian and less than 1% (35,000) for Rumantsch. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1366x866, 179 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1366x866, 179 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x957, 277 KB) Beschreibung Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Switzerland Demographics of Switzerland ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1500x957, 277 KB) Beschreibung Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Switzerland Demographics of Switzerland ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... Italian ( , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, primarily in Italy. ... Romansh (also spelled Rumantsch, Romansch or Romanche) is one of the four national languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian and French. ... Romansh (also spelled Rumantsch, Romansch or Romanche) is any of the various Rhaetian languages spoken in Switzerland. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Swiss French (Suisse romand in French) is the name used for the different dialects of French spoken in the Francophone part of Switzerland known as Romandy. ... Franco-Provençal (Francoprovençal) or Arpitan (in vernacular: patouès) (in Italian: francoprovenzale, provenzale alpina, arpitano, patois; French: francoprovençal, arpitan, patois) is a Romance language with several dialects in a linguistic sub-group separate from Langue dOïl and Langue dOc. ... The term Lombard refers to a group of related dialects spoken mainly in Southern Switzerland (Ticino and Graubünden) and in Northern Italy (most of Lombardy and some areas of neighbouring regions). ...

The Cantons of Fribourg, Berne, Valais and Grisons are officially bi- or trilingual (Grisons). In fact, Jura and Ticino are also bilingual, but the traditional German minority is very small. The Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. ... The Swiss canton of Bern (German: Kanton Bern; French Canton de Berne) has a population of about 947,000. ... The Valais (German:  ) is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the south-western part of the country, in the Pennine Alps around the valley of the Rhone River from its springs to Lake Geneva. ... Grisons or Graubünden (German: Graubünden; Italian: Grigioni; Romansh: Grischun) is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. ... The Canton of Jura is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the northwestern part of Switzerland. ... Canton Ticino or Ticino (German: (help· info)) is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. ...

The non-official language with the largest group of native speakers is Serbo-Croatian with 111,000 speakers in 2000, followed by Albanian with 95,000, Portuguese with 89,500, Spanish with 77,500, English with 73,000, Turkish 44,000, and a total of 165,000 speakers of other languages, amounting to roughly 10% of the population with a native language not among the four official languages. Serbo-Croatian (srpskohrvatski or hrvatskosrpski) is a name for a language of the Western group of the South Slavic languages. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Literacy

Definition: age 15 and over can read and write

Total population: 99% (1980 est.) (no separate numbers for sexes) 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

Delinquence

The police registered a total of 332,452 criminal offenses in 2003, including 187 killings and 547 cases of rape. In the same year, 86,186 adults (85% of them male, 51.1% of them Swiss citizens) were convicted under criminal law. 54.8% of convictions were for traffic offences, 37.9% of punishments were in the form of fines only. In the same year, 13,483 minors (82% of them male, 61.4% of them of Swiss nationality, 79.5% aged between 15 and 18) were convicted. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• List of Swiss people
• Switzerland
• Politics of Switzerland

This is a list of famous Swiss and notable people from or resident in Switzerland and cantons forming present-day Switzerland. ... Switzerland is a federal republic, and perhaps the closest state in the world to a direct democracy. ...

External links

• Swiss Federal Office of Statistics