Federal President (rotating): Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (until 1 Jan 2013)
President: Vaclav Klaus
Population
7,925,517
10,177,300
Life Expectancy
81.170 years
77.380 years
Capital City
Bern
Prague
Largest city
Zurich (population: 341,730)
Praha (population: 1,165,580)
Human Development Index
0.955
0.897
GDP per capita
$43,900 US
$27,400 US
Literacy Rate
99%
99%
Corruption Perception Index
9
5.2
Percentage of Women in Parliament
27.2%
16%
Wealthiest Citizens
Ernesto Bertarelli ($8.2bn US)
Petr Kellner ($6.0bn US)
Unemployment Rate
3.100%
8.500%
Death Penalty
Abolished
Abolished
Political System
formally a confederation but similar in structure to a federal republic
parliamentary democracy
Independence date
1 August 1291 (founding of the Swiss Confederation)
1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia)
Religions
Roman Catholic 41.8%, Protestant 35.3%, Muslim 4.3%, Orthodox 1.8%, other Christian 0.4%, other 1%, unspecified 4.3%, none 11.1% (2000 census)
Roman Catholic 26.8%, Protestant 2.1%, other 3.3%, unspecified 8.8%, unaffiliated 59% (2001 census)
Languages
German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 20.4%, Italian (official) 6.5%, Serbo-Croatian 1.5%, Albanian 1.3%, Portuguese 1.2%, Spanish 1.1%, English 1%, Romansch (official) 0.5%, other 2.8% (2000 census) note: German, French, Italian, and Romansch are all national and official languages
Czech 94.9%, Slovak 2%, other 2.3%, unidentified 0.8% (2001 census)
