📰 Switzerland · page 5

Science

Main article: Science and technology in Switzerland

See also: List of Swiss Nobel laureates

Switzerland is among the countries with the highest number of Nobel laureates, both in total and per capita; of the 28 Swiss nationals who have won the Nobel Prize, 23 were recognised in the sciences.426 Among the most famous is Albert Einstein,[192] who became a Swiss citizen in 1901 and developed his theory of special relativity in Bern.427 Among the Nobel laureates born or naturalised in Switzerland are Vladimir Prelog, Heinrich Rohrer, Richard Ernst, Edmond Fischer, Rolf Zinkernagel, Kurt Wüthrich and Jacques Dubochet.428 Over 100 laureates across all fields have a relationship to Switzerland.[193][194]429 The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded nine times to organisations headquartered in Switzerland.[195]430

Geneva and the nearby French department of Ain co-host the world's largest laboratory, CERN,[196] dedicated to particle physics research.431 Another important research centre is the Paul Scherrer Institute, which conducts multi-disciplinary research in the natural and engineering sciences.432

Notable Swiss inventions include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), diazepam (Valium), Velcro, and the scanning tunnelling microscope, which earned inventors Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics.433 Auguste Piccard became the first person to enter the Stratosphere with his pressurised hydrogen ballon, while his son Jacques Piccard became one of the first people to explore the deepest known part of the world's ocean (along with American Don Walsh).434

The Swiss Space Office has been involved in various space technologies and programmes.435 It was one of the 10 founders of the European Space Agency in 1975 and is the seventh largest contributor to the ESA budget.436 In the private sector, several companies participate in the space industry, such as Oerlikon Space[197] and Maxon Motors.[198]437

Energy

See also: Energy in Switzerland

Electricity generated in Switzerland is 56% from hydroelectricity and 39% from nuclear power, producing negligible CO2.438 On 18 May 2003, two anti-nuclear referendums were defeated: Moratorium Plus, aimed at forbidding the building of new nuclear power plants (41.6% supported),[199] and Electricity Without Nuclear (33.7% supported) after a moratorium expired in 2000.[200]439 After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, in 2011 the government announced plans to end the use of nuclear energy in the following 20 to 30 years.[201]440 In November 2016, Swiss voters rejected a Green Party referendum to accelerate the phaseout of nuclear power (45.8% supported).[202]441 The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) is responsible for energy supply and energy use within the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC).442 The agency supports the 2000-watt society initiative to cut the nation's energy use by more than half by 2050.[203]443

Transport

Main article: Transport in Switzerland

Switzerland had approximately 6,562,600 motor vehicles (excluding mopeds) in 2025.[204]444 The largest category was passenger cars with 4,829,500 units (58.7% running on petrol, 24% on diesel, 5.2% on electricity and 11.9% hybrid).[204]445

The densest rail network in Europe spans 5250 km and carried 614 million passengers in 2023.[205][206]446 In 2023, each Swiss resident travelled on average 2446 km by rail, more than any other European country.[207][208]447 Virtually 100% of the network is electrified.448 60% of the network is operated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS).449 Besides the second largest standard gauge railway company, BLS AG, two railways companies operate on narrow gauge networks: the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) in Graubünden, which includes some World Heritage lines,[209] and the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB), which co-operates with RhB the Glacier Express between Zermatt and St. Moritz/Davos.450 Switzerland operates the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel and the first flat, low-level route through the Alps, the 57.1 km Gotthard Base Tunnel, the largest part of the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA) project.451

Public transport is very popular.452 For example, a 2010 microcensus discovered that in Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, 32% of its inhabitants use the city's public transport regularly (trams or trolleybuses, of which 60% used at least those two modes), while 26% depended on a personal vehicle.453 Fewer than half the residents owned a car or a motorcycle.[210]454

Switzerland has a publicly managed, toll-free road network financed by highway permits as well as vehicle and petrol taxes.455 The Swiss autobahn/autoroute system requires the annual purchase of a vignette (toll sticker)—for 40 Swiss francs—to use its roadways, including passenger cars and trucks.456 The Swiss autobahn/autoroute network stretches for 2259 km and has one of the highest motorway densities in the world.[211][212]457

Zurich Airport is Switzerland's largest international flight gateway; it handled 31.2 million passengers in 2024.[213]458 The other international airports are Geneva Airport (13.9 million passengers in 2012),[214] EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg (located in France), Bern Airport, Lugano Airport, St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport and Sion Airport.459 Swiss International Air Lines is the flag carrier.460 Its main hub is Zurich, but it is legally domiciled in Basel.461

In November 2025, Switzerland's Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) granted WeRide, a global leader in autonomous driving technology, a driverless permit which authorises it to operate autonomously on public roads in the Furttal region.462 This is the first driverless Robotaxi permit for passengers issued in Switzerland.[215]463

Environment

Main article: Environment of Switzerland, Waste management in Switzerland

Switzerland has one of the best environmental records among developed nations.[216]464 It is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol; alongside Mexico and South Korea, it was a founding member of the Environmental Integrity Group (EIG).[217]465

The country is active in recycling and anti-littering programs and is one of the world's top recyclers, recovering 66% to 96% of recyclable materials, varying across the country.[218]466 The 2014 Global Green Economy Index placed Switzerland among the top 10 green economies.[219]467

Switzerland has an economic system for garbage disposal, which is based mostly on recycling and energy-producing incinerators.[220]468 As in other European countries, the illegal disposal of garbage is heavily fined.469 In almost all Swiss municipalities, mandatory stickers or dedicated garbage bags allow the identification of disposable garbage.[221]470

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Switzerland, Swiss people, Crime in Switzerland

Further information: List of Swiss people

The Swiss population is about 9 million as of June 2024.[222]471 Like other developed countries, Switzerland experienced rapid population growth during the industrial era, with the number of inhabitants quadrupling between 1800 and 1990.472 Population growth is projected to continue to 2035, due mostly to immigration.473 Like most of Europe, Switzerland faces an ageing population, with a fertility rate close to replacement level.[223]474 Switzerland has one of the world's oldest populations, with an average age of 44.5 years.[224]475

According to the World Factbook, as of 2020, the largest ethnic group in the country is Swiss (69.2%), which includes several ethno-linguistic groups, followed by German (4.2%), Italian (3.2%), Portuguese (2.5%), French (2.1%), Kosovan (1.1%), Turkish (1%), and other (16.7%).[224]476 The Council of Europe suggests a population of around 30,000 Romani people.[225]477

Largest cities

Main article: List of cities in Switzerland

Immigration

Main article: Immigration to Switzerland

In 2023, resident foreigners made up 26.3% of Switzerland's population.[24]478 Most of these (83%) were from European countries.479 Italy provided the largest single group of foreigners, accounting for 14.7% of total foreign population, followed closely by Germany (14.0%), Portugal (11.7%), France (6.6%), Kosovo (5.1%), Spain (3.9%), Turkey (3.1%), North Macedonia corpus (3.1%), Serbia (2.8%), Austria (2.0%), United Kingdom (1.9%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1.3%) and Croatia (1.3%).480 Immigrants from Sri Lanka corpus (1.3%), most of them former Tamil refugees, were the largest group of Asian origin (7.9%).[226]481

2021 figures show that 39.5% (compared to 34.7% in 2012) of the permanent resident population aged 15 or over (around 2.89 million), had an immigrant background.482 38% of the population with an immigrant background (1.1 million) held Swiss citizenship.[227][228]483

In the 2000s, domestic and international institutions expressed concern about what was perceived as an increase in xenophobia.484 In reply to one critical report, the Federal Council noted that "racism unfortunately is present in Switzerland", but stated that the high proportion of foreign citizens in the country, as well as the generally successful integration of foreigners, underlined Switzerland's openness.[229]485 A follow-up study conducted in 2018 reported that 59% considered racism a serious problem in Switzerland.[230]486 The proportion of the population that claimed to have been targeted by racial discrimination increased from 10% in 2014 to almost 17% in 2018, according to the Federal Statistical Office.[231]487

Languages

Main article: Languages of Switzerland

Switzerland has four national languages: mainly German (spoken natively by 62% of the population in 2026); French (22.7%) spoken natively in the west; and Italian (8.2%) spoken natively in the south.[232][233]488 The fourth national language, Romansh (0.5%), is a Romance language spoken locally in the southeastern trilingual canton of Grisons, and is designated by Article 4 of the Federal Constitution as a national language along with German, French, and Italian.489 In Article 70 it is mentioned as an official language if the authorities communicate with persons who speak Romansh.490 However, federal laws and other official acts do not need to be decreed in Romansh.491

In 2016, the languages most spoken at home among permanent residents aged 15 and older were Swiss German (59.4%), French (23.5%), Standard German (10.6%), and Italian (8.5%).492 Other languages spoken at home included English (5.0%), Portuguese (3.8%), Albanian (3.0%), Spanish (2.6%) and Serbian and Croatian (2.5%).493 6.9% reported speaking another language at home.[234]494 In 2019 more than two-thirds (68%) of the permanent resident population indicated speaking more than one language regularly.[235][236]495

The federal government is obliged to communicate in the official languages, and in the federal parliament simultaneous translation is provided from and into German, French and Italian.[237]496

Aside from the official forms of their respective languages, the four linguistic regions of Switzerland also have local dialectal forms.497 The role played by dialects in each linguistic region varies dramatically: in German-speaking regions, Swiss German dialects have become more prevalent since the second half of the 20th century, especially in the media, and are used as an everyday language for many, while the Swiss variety of Standard German is almost always used instead of dialect for written communication (cf. diglossic usage of a language).[238]498 Conversely, in the French-speaking regions, local Franco-Provençal dialects have almost disappeared (only 6.3% of the population of Valais, 3.9% of Fribourg, and 3.1% of Jura still spoke dialects at the end of the 20th century), while in the Italian-speaking regions, the use of Lombard dialects is mostly limited to family settings and casual conversation.[238]499

The principal official languages have terms not used outside of Switzerland, known as Helvetisms.500 German Helvetisms are, roughly speaking, a large group of words typical of Swiss Standard German that do not appear in Standard German, nor in other German dialects.501 These include terms from Switzerland's surrounding language cultures (German Billett[239] from French), from similar terms in another language (Italian azione used not only as act but also as discount from German Aktion).[240]502 Swiss French, while generally close to the French of France, also contains some Helvetisms.503 The most frequent characteristics of Helvetisms are in vocabulary, phrases, and pronunciation, although certain Helvetisms denote themselves as special in syntax and orthography.504 Duden, the comprehensive German dictionary, contains about 3000 Helvetisms.[240]505 Current French dictionaries, such as the Petit Larousse, include several hundred Helvetisms; notably, Swiss French uses different terms than that of France for the numbers 70 (septante) and 90 (nonante) and often 80 (huitante) as well.[241]506

Learning one of the other national languages is compulsory for all Swiss pupils, hence many Swiss are supposed to be at least bilingual, especially those belonging to linguistic minority groups.[242]507 Because the largest part of Switzerland is German-speaking, many French, Italian, and Romansh speakers migrating to the rest of Switzerland and the children of those non-German-speaking Swiss born within the rest of Switzerland speak German.508 While learning one of the other national languages at school is important, most Swiss learn English to communicate with Swiss speakers of other languages, as it is perceived as a neutral means of communication.509 English often functions as the de facto lingua franca.[243]510

Religion

Main article: Religion in Switzerland

Christianity is the predominant religion according to national surveys of Swiss Federal Statistical Office,[245] divided between the Catholic Church (31.9% of the population), the Swiss Reformed Church (20.4%) and other Christian denominations.[5]511

Switzerland has no official state religion, though most cantons (except Geneva and Neuchâtel) recognise official churches, either the Catholic Church or the Swiss Reformed Church.512 These churches, and in some cantons the Old Catholic Church and Jewish congregations, are financed by official taxation of members.[246]513 In 2020, the Roman Catholic Church had 3,048,475 registered and church tax paying members (corresponding to 35.2% of the total population), while the Swiss Reformed Church had 2,015,816 members (23.3% of the total population).[247][248]514

As of 2023, according to a national survey conducted by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office,[245] the next largest Christian groups are Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy (2.8%), Reformed Evangelicalism (1.1%), Neo-Pietism (0.4%), Pentecostalism and other Charismatic communities (0.4%, mostly incorporated in the Schweizer Pfingstmission), Adventism (0.4%), Apostolic communities (0.2%), the Old Catholic Church (0.1%), and other Christian denominations (0.3%).515

Non-Christian religions are Islam (5.8%), Hinduism (0.6%), Buddhism (0.5%), Judaism (0.2%) and others (0.2%).[5][245]516

Close to one-third (33.8%) of the population are not affiliated with a religious community.[5]517 Some traditionally Protestant cantons and cities have a slight Catholic majority, reflecting a growing trend in seculairsation and irreligion since 1970; as 2012, the proportion of religiously unaffiliated people was largest in Basel-City (42%), canton of Neuchâtel (38%), canton of Geneva (35%), canton of Vaud (26%), or Zurich city (city: >25%; canton: 23%).[249]518

By 2024, half the Swiss population never attended a religious event in the 12 months preceding, according to the Federal Statistical Office.519 More than a quarter who left their religion cite loss of faith or disagreement with their religious community.[250]520