Top 10 facts about Switzerland

07.04.2021

CONTENTS

Geography and population in Switzerland
Official language in Switzerland
Currency in Switzerland
Internet in Switzerland
Economic development in Switzerland
Job in Switzerland
Working days and holidays in Switzerland
Mentality in Switzerland
Advertising in Switzerland
Cryptocurrency in Switzerland

1. Geography and population in Switzerland

Switzerland, which is officially called The Swiss Confederation, is located in the central part of Europe and covers an area of 40,000 km2.
The country is completely continental and has bordered with Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, France and Italy. Switzerland borders on Lake Constance in Austrian and German side, and on Lake Geneva passed with France. The country has 220 km from north to south, and 348 km from west to east. Current time zone: UTC +01:00 CET.

General information about Switzerland:

Area: 40,000 km²
Population: 8.6 million (2019)
Largest cities: Geneva, Zurich, Bern, Basel, Lausanne, Lucerne
International Direct Dial Code: +41
Top-level domain/ TLD: .ch
Languages: Italian, German, Romansh, French

2. Official language in Switzerland

Switzerland is divided into 4 regions:

● German-speaking Switzerland (Center, North, East)
● Romandie (West)
● Ticino + 4 southern valleys of Graubünden (South)
● some valleys of the canton of Graubünden, where the Romansh language is still preserved (Southeast)

Swiss - 80%, foreigners - 20%
German-speaking - 65%
French speaking – 20%
Italian speaking – 10%
Others speak Romansch.
Swiss population

Distribution of the 4 languages of Switzerland by cantons and municipalities.
German (red); French (blue); Italian (green); Romansh (yellow).

3. Currency in Switzerland

The Swiss franc has legal tender (currency) status in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein.
1 CHF = 1.08 USD

4. Internet in Switzerland

The Internet in Switzerland has one of the highest usage rates in Europe. Switzerland is one of the countries with the most developed internet infrastructure. About 93% of households have access to the Internet, about 30% of them through a fiber-optic connection. Although most of the infrastructure consists of fiber-optic networks, connections to homes, especially in rural areas, are still made using lower bandwidth copper cables.

Rating of the most visited sites in Switzerland:

Сomputers, electronics and technology/ Search engines
Arts and Entertainment/ TV Movies and Video Streaming
Сomputers, electronics and technology/ Social networks and online communities
Сomputers, electronics and technology/ Search engines
Reference / Dictionaries and encyclopedias
News and media
Arts and Entertainment/ TV Movies and Video Streaming
Сomputers, electronics and technology/ Сomputers, electronics and technology
Law and government / Government

5. Economic development in Switzerland

- Switzerland's financial reputation as a “safe haven”. This includes high confidentiality of banking operations, and the independence of the economic course, and political neutrality. In times of financial crises, instability or uncertainty, when the main task of investors is not to make a profit, but to preserve capital, they prefer the Swiss "haven" for investments.

- First of all, the EU prefers to invest in the economy of Switzerland. Almost 84% of the total amount of investments falls on the share of the European Union. Investments from the United States account for almost all the rest - 14.5%.

- 72% of the GDP is provided by the service sector. 27% is accounted for by Swiss industry. Switzerland is not the leader in terms of the absolute GDP, then in terms of this indicator per capita, the country occupies the fourth position in the world, ahead of the strongest EU.

- Approximately 75% of the range of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry is made up of products using biotechnology, 98% of it is exported. Despite the fact that this sector of the economy forms less than 5% of the country's GDP, the share of Swiss chemical-pharmacology in the world market is 4%.

6. Job in Switzerland

After deducting all taxes, the average salary is 6 thousand euros per month.

Average income of wage earners in Switzerland
In certain regions of Switzerland, the average wage level differs

Average monthly salary in Switzerland by region:

● Zurich - 7,000 francs
● Lake Geneva region - 6,600 francs
● Swiss plateau region - 6,500 francs
● Northwest Switzerland - 6,700 francs
● Central Switzerland – 6,400 francs

Average monthly salary in Switzerland by profession:

● Auto mechanic – 4,450 francs
● City transport driver – 5,000 francs
● Journalist – 5,500 francs
● Social worker - 6,300 francs
● Teacher – 7,400 francs

7. Working days and holidays in Switzerland

In Switzerland, the working day starts at 7 a.m. and lasts until 4 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. On average, a Swiss citizen works 41 hours and 10 minutes a week (assuming full employment), which is relatively small compared to the situation in other developed countries. Recently, by order of the Swiss National Venture Science Foundation (Schweizerischer Nationalfonds), it was a reserch in the country, which showed that if in 1950 a Swiss worked on average 2,400 hours a year, then by 2010 this figure had dropped to 1,600 hours.

Holidays in Switzerland and the corresponding weekend days vary from canton to canton. In Catholic cantons, such as in Zug, there may be more holidays than in Protestant ones, such as Zurich. In addition, there are local holidays, such as carnivals or the Guild Parade in Zurich, which are a weekend in a particular city.

Common ones are Christmas (December 25), New Year (January 1st), Easter and of course August 1st - National Swiss Day, when celebrations and fireworks are held throughout the country, especially in Bern and the Lake Lucerne region.

8. Mentality in Switzerland

Switzerland is a small country hiding in the heart of Europe, and the Swiss are humble workers who are sincerely proud of their country. Outwardly, the Swiss are neither warriors nor rebels. They are very cozy, homely people in their calmness and restraint. But the character of these people, despite the outward softness, is rather strict. The Swiss simply do not understand what it is like to live not in freedom. At the same time, it is appropriate to say about the "masculine" principle of the Swiss national character - independence, endurance, perseverance in pursuing "one's own line", emotional restraint. Switzerland is often scolded in the western democratic lobbies for its “male dominance”. Here, indeed, there is still no such level of female emancipation as in the Scandinavian countries.

Swiss personality traits:

- hard work
- scrupulous honesty
- pessimism
- silence
- isolation
- accuracy
- sobriety
- selfishness
- perfection
- education
- responsibility
- unfriendliness
- lack of patience

9. Advertising in Switzerland

Every year, shopping through online stores is becoming more and more popular among the Swiss, which pushes traditional shopping to the background. In the last year alone, residents of the Confederation have made purchases via the Internet for a total of 7.2 billion francs, which is 7.5% more than the year before. Most often, the Swiss buy consumer electronics - about 1.64 billion francs, as well as clothes and shoes - about 1.38 billion francs. Recently, purchases through online stores located abroad have gained particular popularity in Switzerland. Due to the strengthening Swiss franc, the average percentage of online purchases abroad increased by 22%, which is about 1.1 billion francs.

Competitive advantages in Switzerland:

1. An excellent location for conducting customer-oriented marketing and sales around the world.
2. Availability of agreements on free trade with the European Union, China, 40 countries of the world.
3. Gaining access to new sales markets.
4. “Made in Switzerland” as a quality mark.
5. Low sales tax in Switzerland

10. Cryptocurrency in Switzerland

Switzerland is cheese, chocolate, watches, the strongest army in Europe and a very calm place for money in the world. A little over two years ago, Switzerland attracted attention with another feature. Immediately after the Ethereum crowdsale, it became the most demanded jurisdiction for blockchain-oriented business.
According to CoinDesk ICO Tracker, the cumulative total of all ICO investments in the first 6 months of 2017 exceeded $1 billion. A third of this amount ($370 million) was collected by Swiss companies. This popularity is facilitated by progressive legislation, relatively low tax rates, a developed banking infrastructure, a high level of confidentiality and, finally, the status of a pioneer country in a good relationship to the crypto business.
In the canton of Zug (the administrative center is the city of Zug), there is the so-called Crypto Valley Association, an organization whose main goal is to build the world's best ecosystem for blockchain and other related technologies.
Crypto Valley is home to hundreds of fintech and blockchain startups including Ethereum, ShapeShift, Xapo, Status, Cosmos Network and many more. The Tezos Foundation is also registered in Zug, which raised a record $232 million for ICO as of August 2017.
The canton has traditionally been considered one of the best places to do cryptocurrency business due to its friendly regulatory environment and policies regarding attracting tech startups to do business in the canton. True, the process of registering a company in the canton is time consuming and costly.