Februar 2014: Initiative "Gegen Masseneinwanderung, EU and Switzerland agree on free movement, Switzerland referendum: Voters reject end to free movement with EU, "Vorlage Nr. Switzerland, federated country of central Europe. The most dense rail network in Europe[55] of 5,250 kilometres (3,260 mi) carries over 596 million passengers annually (as of 2015). Sources: Our World In Data and Gapminder Foundation.

World Population: Total World Population as of July 1 of the year indicated. [185] Italians were the largest single group of foreigners, with 15.6% of total foreign population, followed closely by Germans (15.2%), immigrants from Portugal (12.7%), France (5.6%), Serbia (5.3%), Turkey (3.8%), Spain (3.7%), and Austria (2%). Lake Constance is the second largest Swiss lake and, like the Lake Geneva, an intermediate step by the Rhine at the border to Austria and Germany. Tennis has become an increasingly popular sport, and Swiss players such as Martina Hingis, Roger Federer, and Stanislas Wawrinka have won multiple Grand Slams. From 1526, the Catholic conferences were held mostly in Lucerne, the Protestant conferences from 1528 mostly in Aarau, the one for the legitimation of the French Ambassador in Solothurn. The Switzerland Population (Live) counter shows a continuously updated estimate of the current population of Switzerland delivered by Worldometer's RTS algorithm, which processes data collected from the United Nations Population Division. Nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland has one of the best environmental records among nations in the developed world;[175] it was one of the countries to sign the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 and ratified it in 2003. The Swiss population has aged considerably over the course of the 20th century.

Some technologies enabled the exploration of new worlds such as the pressurised balloon of Auguste Piccard and the Bathyscaphe which permitted Jacques Piccard to reach the deepest point of the world's oceans.

Its population includes a two-thirds majority of Alemannic German speakers and a one-quarter Latin minority (French, Italian and Romansh), see linguistic geography of Switzerland. [132] Primary school continues until grade four, five or six, depending on the school. Senior citizens (over 65) were 81.3% Christian (40.3% Roman Catholic, 36.2% Reformed, 4.8% other), 14.9% unaffiliated, 0.3% Jewish, 1.1% Muslim, 0.5% other religions.
The restoration of power to the patriciate was only temporary. Notable inventions include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), diazepam (Valium), the scanning tunnelling microscope (Nobel prize) and Velcro. [212][213] Switzerland has gone from a largely rural country to an urban one in just 70 years. Some Swiss cantons approved this in 1959, while at the federal level it was achieved in 1971[41][55] and, after resistance, in the last canton Appenzell Innerrhoden (one of only two remaining Landsgemeinde, along with Glarus) in 1990. About 25% of the adult population hold a diploma of higher learning. According to the CIA World Factbook data for 2003, 99% of the Swiss population aged 15 and over could read and write, with the rate being identical for both sexes.
The unemployment rate increased from a low of 1.7% in June 2000 to a peak of 4.4% in December 2009. Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated at the confluence of Western, Central, and Southern Europe. The war convinced most Swiss of the need for unity and strength towards its European neighbours. It is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps, and the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi), and land area of 39,997 km2 (15,443 sq mi). A negative number means that there are more emigrants than immigrants. Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities, "Bevölkerungsbestand am Ende des 2. The minimum age for primary school is about six years in all cantons, but most cantons provide a free "children's school" starting at four or five years old. The Rhône is both the main source and outflow of Lake Geneva. [31] The entire region became part of the expanding Frankish Empire in the 6th century, following Clovis I's victory over the Alemanni at Tolbiac in 504 AD, and later Frankish domination of the Burgundians. And, as a prototypical federal compromise, to assign other federal institutions, such as the Federal Polytechnical School (1854, the later ETH) to Zurich, and other institutions to Lucerne, such as the later SUVA (1912) and the Federal Insurance Court (1917). Anabaptists Felix Manz and Conrad Grebel also operated there. In addition it was one of the 10 founders of the European Space Agency in 1975 and is the seventh largest contributor to the ESA budget. [41] Henceforth, much of Swiss politics would concern balancing the cantons' tradition of self-rule with the need for a central government.