Switzerland 



Facts
Population:
7,283,274 (July 2001 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years:
16.97% (male 634,030; female 601,929)
15-64 years:
67.73% (male 2,505,450; female 2,427,408)
65 years and over:
15.3% (male 453,366; female 661,091) (2001 est.)
Population growth rate:
0.27% (2001 est.)
Birth rate:
10.12 births/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Death rate:
8.77 deaths/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Net migration rate:
1.37 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2001 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth:
1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years:
1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years:
1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over:
0.69 male(s)/female
total population:
0.97 male(s)/female (2001 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
4.48 deaths/1,000 live births (2001 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population:
79.73 years
male:
76.85 years
female:
82.76 years (2001 est.)
Total fertility rate:
1.47 children born/woman (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.46% (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
17,000 (1999 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
150 (1999 est.)
Nationality:
noun:
Swiss (singular and plural)
adjective:
Swiss
Ethnic groups:
German 65%, French 18%, Italian 10%, Romansch 1%, other 6%
Religions:
Roman Catholic 46.1%, Protestant 40%, other 5%, none 8.9% (1990)
Languages:
German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 19.2%, Italian (official) 7.6%, Romansch 0.6%, other 8.9%
Literacy:
definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population:
99% (1980 est.)
male:
NA%
female:
NA%
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $207 billion (2000 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
3% (2000 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $28,600 (2000 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture:
2.8%
industry:
31.1%
services:
66.1% (1995)
Population below poverty line:
NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%:
2.8%
highest 10%:
25.2% (1992)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
1.5% (2000 est.)
Labor force:
3.9 million (964,000 foreign workers, mostly Italian) (1998 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
services 69.1%, industry 26.3%, agriculture 4.6% (1998 est.)
Unemployment rate:
1.9% (2000 est.)
Budget:
revenues:
$32.66 billion
expenditures:
$34.89 billion, including capital expenditures of $2.3 billion (1998 est.)
Industries:
machinery, chemicals, watches, textiles, precision instruments
Industrial production growth rate:
8.6% (2000 est.)
Electricity - production:
66.768 billion kWh (1999)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel:
3.44%
hydro:
59.16%
nuclear:
35.43%
other:
1.97% (1999)
Electricity - consumption:
51.862 billion kWh (1999)
Electricity - exports:
31.955 billion kWh (1999)
Electricity - imports:
21.723 billion kWh (1999)
Agriculture - products:
grains, fruits, vegetables; meat, eggs
Exports:
$91.3 billion (f.o.b., 2000)
Exports - commodities:
machinery, chemicals, metals, watches, agricultural products
Exports - partners:
EU 65.8% (Germany 22.6%, France 9.2%, Italy 8.0%, UK 5.5%, Austria 3.2%), US 12.4%, Japan 4.0% (1999)
Imports:
$91.6 billion (f.o.b., 2000)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, chemicals, vehicles, metals; agricultural products, textiles
Imports - partners:
EU 77.7% (Germany 31.0%, France 12.0%, Italy 9.7%, Netherlands 5.1%, UK 5.7%), US 7.1%, Japan 2.9% (1999)
Debt - external:
$NA
Economic aid - donor:
ODA, $1.1 billion (1995)
Currency:
Swiss franc (CHF)
Currency code:
CHF
Exchange rates:
Swiss francs per US dollar - 1.6303 (January 2001), 1.6888 (2000), 1.5022 (1999), 1.4498 (1998), 1.4513 (1997), 1.2360 (1996)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
Statistics: CIA World Factbook.
Press
1 2 3 4 5
Displaying 1 to 7 of 29 items.
(Independent), Lausanne/Zurich
http://www.24heures.ch/
Afrique Diplomatique
(African-oriented monthly), Geneva
Basel
http://www.baz.ch/
Blick
(mass circulation), Zurich
Construire
(Independent weekly), Lausanne/Zurich
(Catholic Oriented), Baden
http://www.dersonntag.ch
Development Forum
(U.N. monthly), Geneva
Switzerland in the News
Tekla Szymanski reviews response in the Swiss press to the nationalist, xenophobic Swiss People's Party victory in parliamentary elections.
In an article for Zurich's conservative Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Hermann Feldmeier reports on research showing that straining water through a sari reduces the rate of cholera infection.
Joëlle Kuntz reports on the Jayson Blair scandal at The New York Times for the independent Geneva daily Le Temps.
Mona Naggar, writing for Zurich's conservative Neue Zürcher Zeitung, looks at Saddam Hussein's rule through the eyes of prominent Arab writers.