Federal President (rotating): Ueli Maurer (until 1 Jan 2014)
King: King Mohammed VI
Population
7,996,026
32,649,130
Life Expectancy
82.280 years
76.310 years
Capital City
Bern
Rabat
Largest city
Zurich (population: 341,730)
Casablanca (population: 3,144,910)
Human Development Index
0.955
0.646
GDP per capita
$54,600 US
$5,300 US
Literacy Rate
99%
52.3%
Corruption Perception Index
9
3.5
Percentage of Women in Parliament
27.2%
6.2%
Wealthiest Citizens
Ernesto Bertarelli ($8.2bn US)
NA
Unemployment Rate
2.900%
8.800%
Death Penalty
Abolished
Abolished in practice
Political System
formally a confederation but similar in structure to a federal republic
constitutional monarchy
Independence date
1 August 1291 (founding of the Swiss Confederation)
2 March 1956 (from France)
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)
Muslim 98.7%, Christian 1.1%, Jewish 0.2%
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
Arabic (official), Berber dialects, French often the language of business, government, and diplomacy