Europe
To which language should you translate to localize in Switzerland?
LANGUAGE INSIGHT
Official language
German (62.5%; 5.53 mln), French (21.3%; 1.88 mln), Italian (8.3%; 734k), Romansh (0.5%; 44k).
Actual languages
German (62.5%; 5.53 mln), French (21.3%; 1.88 mln), Italian (8.3%; 734k), Croatian (1.4%; 123k), Albanian (1.3%; 115k), Portuguese (1.2%; 106k), Spanish (1.1%; 97k), Romansh (0.5%; 44k), other (2.4%; 212k)
What the top 150 best localized websites in the world do in Switzerland
(Top 150 websites listed in the Global by Design ranking – published annually by Byte Level Research, this report provides a list of globally localized websites, showcasing best practices and emerging trends in their globalization)
- 65/150 localize by translating into German, French and Italian
- 55/150 localize by translating into both German and French
- 4/150 localize by translating into German
- 1/150 localizes by translating into German, French, Italian, Romansh and Swiss Sign Language
- 1/150 localizes by translating into both German and Italian
- 1/150 localizes by translating into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian
- 1/150 localizes by translating into German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Simplified Chinese
- 1/150 localizes by translating into German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, Romanian, Polish, Bahasa Indonesia, Hungarian, Thai and Ukrainian
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3M
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ABB
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Accenture
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Adidas
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Adobe
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Airbnb
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Aldi
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Amazon
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American Airlines
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American Express
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Apple
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Audi
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Autodesk
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Avis
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Bayer
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BMW
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Booking.com
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Bosch
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British Airways
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Bumble
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Burberry
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BYD
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Canon
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Capgemini
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Cartier
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Caterpillar
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Chevrolet
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Cisco Systems
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Citibank
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Coca-Cola
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Costco
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Dell
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Deloitte
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Delta
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DHL
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Disney+
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Dyson
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eBay
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Eli Lilly
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Emirates
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Ernst & Young
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Facebook
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FedEx
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Ford
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Four Seasons
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Fujifilm
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GE
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Gillette
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GoDaddy
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Google
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Gucci
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Haier
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Heineken
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Hermès
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Hertz
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Hilton
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Hisense
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Hitachi
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Honda
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Hotels.com
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HP
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HP Enterprise
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HSBC
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Huawei
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Hyatt
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Hyundai
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IBM
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IKEA
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Intel
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InterContinental Hotels
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J&J
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Jack Daniel's
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Jehovah’s Witnesses
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John Deere
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Kellogg's
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Kia
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KPMG
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L'Oréal
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Land Rover
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LEGO
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Lenovo
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Lexus
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LG
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Louis Vuitton
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Lululemon
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LUSH
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Marriott
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MasterCard
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McDonald's
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Mercedes-Benz
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Merck
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Microsoft
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Mitsubishi Electric
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Nestlé
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Netflix
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Nike
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Nikon
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Nintendo
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Nio
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Nissan
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NIVEA
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Oracle
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Pampers
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Panasonic
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PayPal
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Pepsi
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Pfizer
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Philips
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Pitney Bowes
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Porsche
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Procter & Gamble
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PWC
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Revolut
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Rolex
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Royal Caribbean
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Salesforce
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Samsung
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Sanofi
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SAP
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Sephora
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Shopify
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Siemens
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Sony
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Spotify
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Starbucks
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Steelcase
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Stripe
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Subaru
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Tesla
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Tiffany
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Tinder
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Toshiba
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Toyota
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TripAdvisor
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Uber
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United Airlines
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UPS
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Visa
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Volkswagen
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Volvo Cars
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Vrbo
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Walmart
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Western Union
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Wikipedia
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Wise
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WordPress
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Workday
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Xerox
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Xiaomi (Mi)
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Zara
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Zoom
If you need others information, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data
Overview
Language
Official language
German (62.5%), French (21.3%), Italian (8.3%), Romansh (0.5%).
Other languages
Croatian (1.4%), Albanian (1.3%), Portuguese (1.2%), Spanish (1.1%), other (2.4%).
T-index. 0.72%
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.
English
High proficiency (EF) – 31 out of 116 countries/regions in the world- 23/35 position in Europe.
Demography
Capital: Switzerland is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons, with federal authority centered in Bern.
Currency: Swiss franc
Population: 8.84 mln
Population density: 226/km2
Economy
GDP: 884.9 billion USD (2023)
GDP per capita: 99,994.94 USD ‎(2023) ‎
Exports: $402 billion (2022)
Statistics
Internet users: 99% penetration, 8.74 million
Unemployment rate: 4.0% (2023)
Urbanisation: 74% (2023)
Literacy: 99% (2020)
Conventions
Numbering system
Arabic numerals with comma as decimal separator
Date format: dd – mm – yyyy
Time: yyyy-mm-dd / dd-mm-yyyy
Country code: 0041
Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal/Worlddata.info
Facts and data
Economy
Imports
$364 billion (2022). Gold ($94.9B), Packaged Medicaments ($32.9B), Vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures ($15B), Cars ($10.9B), and Jewellery ($8.84B), importing mostly from Germany ($76.1B), United States ($37.7B), Italy ($27.8B), France ($22.3B), and China ($17.9B).
In 2022, Switzerland was the world’s biggest importer of Gold ($94.9B), Watch Straps ($677M), Watch Cases and Parts ($390M), Other Clocks and Watches ($376M), and Gold Clad Metals ($90.4M).
Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of age)
• 99.5% have an account with a financial institution
• 69.2% have a credit card
• 72% make online purchases
Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 76.6 out of 100) ranked 22nd out of 34 OECD high income countries ranked 36th out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).
Exports
$402 billion (2022). Gold ($101B), Vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures ($46.7B), Packaged Medicaments ($45.4B), Nitrogen Heterocyclic Compounds ($16.6B), and Base Metal Watches ($16.1B), exporting mostly to United States ($61.7B), Germany ($53.5B), China ($44.1B), Italy ($22.8B), and France ($20.4B).
In 2022, Switzerland was the world’s biggest exporter of Gold ($101B), Base Metal Watches ($16.1B), Precious Metal Watches ($9.41B), Hydrazine or Hydroxylamine Derivatives ($527M), and Other Clocks and Watches ($417M).
Main local online stores
igitec.ch, Zalando and Amazon. Other top retail sites include Nespresso, brack.ch, microspot.ch, leshop.ch, galaxus.ch, coopathome.ch and zurrose.ch.
Economic freedom
‘Free’ (rated 83 out of 100) ranked 1st out of 45 European countries and ranked 2nd out of 186 countries worldwide (2023, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).
Global Innovation Index
Ranked 1st out of 39 European countries, 1st out of 132 worldwide.
The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.
Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal
Service Imports (2019)
Service Exports (2019)
Source: OEC
Trade balance of goods from 2013 to 2023
Source: Statista
Historical Data Trade Imports (2019)
The following section uses historical trade data imports from partners of Switzerland.
Historical Data Trade Exports (2019)
The following section uses historical trade data exports from partners of Switzerland.
Source: OEC
Switzerland's Most Complex Exports
The Product Complexity Index (PCI) measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters.
The Top Export Opportunities for Switzerland by Relatedness
Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product by showing only products that Switzerland is not specialized in.
Source: OEC
Switzerland's Most Specialized Products
Specialization is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), an index that takes the ratio between Switzerland observed and expected exports in each product.
Source: OEC
Perception of products made in selected countries in 2017
Source: Statista
Which attributes do you associate with products made in Switzerland?
Source: Statista
Market Growth Imports (2019)
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start importing that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Market Growth Exports (2019)
This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start exporting that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.
Source: OEC
Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)
Source: WorldBank
Which payment methods do you prefer when shopping online?
Sources: Y&R; Futurecom
E-commerce payment method in Switzerland, split by value
Source: J.P. Morgan 2019 Payment trends
Most popular online stores in Switzerland in 2018, by e-commerce net sales
(in million U.S. dollars)
Source: EcommerceDB.com
Preferred e-commerce methods
Source: Y&R Group Switzerland
T-index
Reach most of the online purchasing power
T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.
Try it nowMedia
Media language
German, Italian, French
Information channels
Broadcasting is dominated by the public Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), which operates in French, German, Italian and Romansh. Most of its funding comes from TV licence fee revenues, with a smaller amount from advertising. In a 2018 referendum, more than 70% of voters rejected a proposal to abolish the licence fee. Private radio and TV stations operate at a regional level. Stations from France, Germany and Italy are widely available, often via cable and satellite. Some German commercial broadcasters provide tailored versions of their TV channels for the Swiss market. Switzerland’s press has full editorial freedom and mainly operates along regional lines which reflect linguistic divisions. Consolidation of newspaper ownership has forced some smaller papers to close, according to Freedom House.
The press
Neue Zürcher Zeitung – Zurich-based daily
Tages-Anzeiger – Zurich-based daily
Le Temps – Geneva-based daily
La Tribune de Geneve – daily
Corriere del Ticino – Lugano-based daily
Television
SRF – public, in German
RSI – public, in Italian
RTS – public, in French
Radio
SRF – public, in German
RTS – public, in French
RSI – public, in Italian
RTR – public, in Romansh
News agency
Swissinfo – news site run by public broadcaster, content in 10 languages
Media data source: BBC
Internet Data
Internet users
99% penetration, 8.74 million
Share of web traffic by device
34.41% mobile phones, 63.69% computers (laptops and desktops), 1.88% tablet devices, others 0.02%
Median speed of mobile Internet connection
83.10 Mbps
Median speed of fixed Internet connection
195.20 Mbps
Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 122.1%
Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 100%
Most popular web search engines
Google (89.21%), Bing (6.98%), DuckDuckGo (1.21%), Yahoo! (1.02%), Ecosia (0.87%), other (0.71%)
Most used social media
Facebook (67.51%), Instagram (10.66%), Pinterest (8.68%), Twitter (8.25%), YouTube (1.95%), Reddit (1.44%), LinkedIn (0.83%), other (0.7%)
Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter
Social statistics
Life expectancy
83 years (2022)
CO2 emissions
4.04 metric tons per capita (2020)
Corruption perceptions Index
Switzerland scored 82 out of 100, ranked 7th out of 180 countries worldwide.
Glass Ceiling Index
45.3 out 100, ranked 27th out of 29 countries.
The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.
Current health expenditure
11.80% of GDP (2021)
Education expenditure
89.4% of total expenditure in public institutions
World Happiness Index
Switzerland ranked 4th out of 146 countries, with a score of 7.512.
Graduates (tertiary education)
In Switzerland, 44% of 25-64 year-olds held a tertiary degree in 2018, compared to 39% on average across OECD countries. The share of tertiary educational attainment is higher for the younger generation. The share of 25-34 year-olds with tertiary education increased by 13 percentage points – from 38% to 51% – over the last decade, in line with the average increase across OECD countries.
Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF
The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com
Country Curiosities
Switzerland is proudly multilingual, featuring four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. German leads, spoken by around 63% of the population, while French is used by about 22%, and Italian by 8%. Romansh, although an official language, is spoken by less than 1% of the population. Despite this linguistic diversity, English is also prevalent, particularly among the younger generation and in urban centers, reflecting Switzerland’s international connections and modern adaptability. This rich language tapestry is central to Switzerland’s cultural identity.
Additionally…
- For nine consecutive years, Switzerland has been named the world’s most innovative country by WIPO.
- Zurich and Geneva rank among the world’s most livable cities.
- Switzerland uses Swiss francs (CHF), not euros, although euros are widely accepted.
- Switzerland’s capital is Bern, not Zurich, Geneva, or Lucerne, and is in the west-central part of the country.
- The world’s leading particle physics lab, CERN, is in Switzerland.
- Non-Swiss residents currently make up 27% of Switzerland’s 8.9 million population.Â
- In 2022, only 8.2% of Swiss residents were affected by income poverty.
- A global leader in recycling, Switzerland excels in waste management and energy conversion.
- Switzerland ranked 8th for school system quality in math and science per an OECD report.
- In Switzerland, use your thumbto indicate “1” when counting with fingers, not your index finger.
Languages research
Languages spoken in Switzerland
Legend
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German
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French
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Italian
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Romansh
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Bilingual areas and cities
The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com
Photo credit: Philippe Dubach, Unsplash