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Interesting facts about Switzerland

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Interesting facts about Switzerland

History & Politics

  • Switzerland has a long and strong tradition of political and military neutrality. However, the country finally opted to join the United Nations in 2002, and the Schengen Agreement in 2005.
  • Switzerland has been an independent country since 1499 (apart from a brief French occupation between 1798 and 1815). Deducting the 17 years of French occupation, the country reached a total of 500 years of independence in 2016.
  • Switzerland is the first and only country to implement a system of government based on the people's administration, also known as direct democracy, which involves the constitutional initiative (public petitions) and the referendum.
  • There are 26 cantons in Switzerland, each of which acts as a state, with its own constitution, legislature, government and courts.
  • The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was founded in 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland, and is still based there. The flag of the Red Cross is the flag of Switzerland with the colours inverted.
  • The Niesenbahn in the Swiss Kandertal is the longest continuous-cable funicular in Europe. Alongside the path of the Niesenbahn is the longest stairway in the world with 11,674 steps.
  • The country code for Switzerland, typically displayed next to car plates, is CH. It stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin for Swiss Confederation - a neutral alternative to using the first letters of one of the four official languages. Nonetheless Switzerland is no longer a confederation. It has been a federal country since 1848, making the 'CH' appellation a misnomer.

  • Geneva is the seat of the European headquarters of the United Nations and of many other inter-governmental organizations and international non-governmental organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Airports Council International (ACI), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the World Wide Web Virtual Library.

Land & People

  • There are 4 official languages in Switzerland : Swiss German (64%, many dialects), French (20.4%), Italian (6.5%), and Romansh (< 1%).
  • Swiss cities regularly rank amongst the most liveable on Earth. Zürich was ranked as the world's most liveable city by Deutsche Bank's Liveability Survey 2019, as ranked second by Monocle's Most Livable Cities Index 2022, by The Economist Intelligence Unit's Quality-of-Life Index 2022, and by Mercer's bi-annual Quality of Living Survey 2019. Mercer respectively ranked Geneva, Basel and Bern 9th, 10th and 14th in 2019, also placing them among the world's best cities to live.
  • The OECD Better Life Index found that, as of 2022, Switzerland ranked as the best country for health in Europe and third best of all developed countries (after Canada and Australia). It also ranked second best for jobs (after Iceland) and third best for income (after Luxembourg and the USA).
  • As of 2020, Switzerland had the 2nd highest life expectancy in Europe (after Norway) and sixth the world.
  • There are 208 mountain peaks above 3000 metres in Switzerland, including 24 above 4000 metres. The highest of them is Monte Rosa (Dufourspitze) at 4634m, at the boundary of the Valais and the Piedmont (Italy).

Business & Economy

  • As of 2022, Switzerland has the 4th highest nominal GDP per capita in the world (after Luxembourg, Ireland and Norway), and the 5th highest at purchasing power parity (PPP).
  • The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ranked Switzerland first in their Global Innovation Index in 2022. The Swiss came second worldwide in the International Institute for Management Development (IMD)'s World Competitiveness Ranking in 2022. In 2019, Switzerland obtained the 5th place in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report, although it topped the index for many years before that.
  • Between 2010 and 2020 Switzerland had the second highest employment rate (after Iceland) of the 38 OECD countries.
  • The Swiss have a long tradition of watchmaking, and are the incontested leader in luxury watches, with brands like Audemars Piguet, Baume et Mercier, Breitling, Chopard, Franck Muller, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Longines, Patek Philippe, Piaget, Rado, Rolex, TAG Heuer, Tissot, or Vacheron Constantin.
  • Vacheron Constantin was founded in Geneva,Switzerland in 1755 and is the oldest watch manufacturer in the world with an uninterrupted history.
  • The wristwatch was invented by Patek Philippe in 1868.
  • Some of the world's most famous companies are Swiss, such as Adecco (human resources), Credit Suisse (banking), Lindt & Sprüngli (chocolate), Logitech (electronics), Mövenpick (hotels), Nestlé (food), Novartis (pharmaceuticals), Richemont (luxury goods), Schindler (lifts/elevators), Securitas (security), Swatch (watches), UBS (banking), or Winterthur (insurance).
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