Switzerland sits at the crossroads of several major European
cultures, which have heavily influenced the country's languages and
cultural practices. Switzerland has four national languages:
German, French, Italian, and Romansh. The German spoken in the
German speaking part of Switzerland is predominantly a range of
Swiss dialects, but newspapers and some broadcasts use High German
as used in Germany. Many Swiss speak more than one language.
English is widely known, especially among professionals.
More than 75% of the population live in the central plain, which
stretches between the Alps and the Jura Mountains and from Geneva
in the southwest to the Rhine River and Lake Constance in the
northeast. Resident
foreigners and temporary foreign workers make up about 20% of the
population.
Almost all Swiss are literate. Switzerland's 13 institutes of
higher learning enrolled 99,600 students in the academic year of
2001-02. About 25% of the adult population hold a diploma of higher
learning.
The constitution guarantees freedom of worship and the different
religious communities co-exist peacefully.
Switzerland consistently ranks high on quality of life indices,
including per capita income, concentration of computer and internet
usage per capita, insurance coverage per individual, and health
care rates. For these and many other reasons, such as the four
languages, it serves as an excellent test market for businesses
hoping to introduce new products into Europe.
