Federal President (rotating): Ueli Maurer (until 1 Jan 2014)
Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II
Population
7,996,026
63,395,574
Life Expectancy
82.280 years
80.290 years
Capital City
Bern
London
Largest city
Zurich (population: 341,730)
London (population: 7,421,210)
Human Development Index
0.955
0.942
GDP per capita
$54,600 US
$36,700 US
Literacy Rate
99%
99%
Corruption Perception Index
9
7.7
Percentage of Women in Parliament
27.2%
19.6%
Wealthiest Citizens
Ernesto Bertarelli ($8.2bn US)
Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor & family ($11.0bn US)
Unemployment Rate
2.900%
7.800%
Death Penalty
Abolished
Abolished
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)
England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain; the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927
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)
Christian (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist) 71.6%, Muslim 2.7%, Hindu 1%, other 1.6%, unspecified or none 23.1% (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
English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)
Swiss francs (CHF) per US dollar - 1.0774 (2008 est.), 1.1973 (2007), 1.2539 (2006), 1.2452 (2005), 1.2435 (2004)
British pounds (GBP) per US dollar - 0.5302 (2008 est.), 0.4993 (2007), 0.5418 (2006), 0.5493 (2005), 0.5462 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
1.000%
2.500%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
6
47
Location
Central Europe, east of France, north of Italy
Western Europe, islands including the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, northwest of France
Area
41,277 km sq
243,610 km sq
Coastline
0 km
12,429 km
Climate
temperate, but varies with altitude; cold, cloudy, rainy/snowy winters; cool to warm, cloudy, humid summers with occasional showers
temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North Atlantic Current; more than one-half of the days are overcast
