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About Switzerland

About Switzerland
Switzerland (German: Schweiz, French: Suisse, Italian: Svizzera, Romansh: Svizra), officially the Swiss Confederation (Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country code CH), is a landlocked country of 7.5 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km². Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called cantons. Berne is the seat of the federal government and de facto capital, while the country's economic centers are its two global cities, Geneva and especially Zurich.

Switzerland is bordered by Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. Switzerland is multilingual and has four national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Switzerland has a long history of neutrality – it has not been at war since 1815 – and hosts many international organizations, including the Red Cross, the WTO and one of the U.N.'s two European offices.

The Latin formal name of Switzerland, Confoederatio Helvetica is derived from the Helvetii, an ancient Celtic people in the Alpine region. It is rendered in German as Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, in French as Confédération suisse, in Italian as Confederazione Svizzera and in Romansh as Confederaziun svizra. The independence of Switzerland is traditionally dated to August 1, 1291; the first of August is the national holiday.

Geography
With an area of 41,285 square kilometers (15,940 sq mi), Switzerland is a relatively small country. The population is about 7.4 million, resulting in an average population density of 182 people per square kilometer (472/sq mi). However, the more mountainous southern half of the country is far more sparsely populated than this average, while the northern half has a somewhat greater density, as it comprises more hospitable hilly terrain, partly forested and partly cleared, as well as several large lakes.

Switzerland comprises three basic topographical areas: the Swiss Alps, the Swiss plateau or "middleland", and the Jura mountains along the northwestern border with France. The Alps are a high mountain range running across the central-south of the country. Among the high peaks of the Swiss Alps, the highest of which is the Dufourspitze at 4,634 meters (15,203 ft), are found countless valleys, many with waterfalls and glaciers. From these the headwaters of several major European rivers such as the Rhine, Rhône, Inn, Aare, and Ticino flow finally into the largest Swiss lakes such as Lake Geneva (Lac Leman), Lake Zürich, Lake Neuchâtel, and Lake Constance.

Economy
Switzerland has a stable modern market economy, with a nominal per capita GDP that is higher than those of big western European economies, United States and Japan ranking 6th behind Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Iceland and Ireland, though on a PPP basis, it only ranks 13th. The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report currently ranks Switzerland's economy as the most competitive in the world. For much of the 20th century, Switzerland was the wealthiest country in Europe by a considerable margin.

Switzerland is home to several large multinational corporations. Notable among these are Nestle, UBS AG, Zurich Financial Services, Credit Suisse, Novartis, ABB, and The Swatch Group. Switzerland is ranked as one of the most powerful economies in the world.

Banking, tourism, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals are important industries in Switzerland. The manufacture of precision instruments for engineering is important, as is watch-making, and the biological sciences industries as well enjoy a high place in the Swiss economy. The many international organisations in Switzerland contribute to the Swiss economy and labor market.

Switzerland's unemployment rate has increased since the beginning of the 21st century, where it stood at a low 1.8% in 2001. The unemployment rate doubled due to problematic low economic growth to 3.9% in 2006 and decreased again to 3.3% in 2007.

Demographics
Switzerland lies at the crossroads of several major European cultures that have heavily influenced the country's languages and culture. Switzerland has three official languages: German (63% according to 2000 Census) in the north, east and centre of the country; French (20.4%) to the west; Italian (6.5%) in the south. Romansh, a Romance language spoken locally by a small minority (< 0.5%) in the southeastern canton of Graubünden, is designated by the Federal Constitution as a national language along with German, French and Italian (Article 4 of the Constitution), and as official language if the authorities communicate with persons of Romansh language (Article 70), but federal laws and other official acts do not need to be decreed in this language.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland )