Switzerland By: Hannah Kofron and Shae Casey

Flag  The flag was adopted December 12,  White cross on red base is a sign of Christian faith and how they separate themselves from their enemies.

Culture  Influences: Germans, French, and Italians.

Physical Characteristics  Most mountainous country in Europe  Alps, Jura Mountains, and Swiss Plateau- Alps cover 3/5 of the country  Most of population lives on rolling hills, valleys and plains

History  Founded in 1291 by Three Cantons. the Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden.  Constitution created in  1798 Invaded by Napoleon.  1815 Borders set.

Population  7,639,961 people make up Switzerland  Birth Rate births/1,000 population  Death Rate deaths /1,000 population  See picture above. Population 2010

Government  Is a confederation.  Capital in Bern.  Chief of State and Head of Government is Micheline Calmy-Rey.  Vice President is Eveline Wider-Schlumpf.  Council member rotate being president.  Bicameral Federal Assembly  46 seats in Council of states  200 seats in National Council  Judicial branch is their federal supreme court.

Language  4 main languages-German, French, Italian and Romanic  60% of people speak German  French -second most spoken language. Approximately 20% of people use French as their first language.  Italian - mostly spoken in the south and about 6% of the population speaks Italian as their first language.  Lastly Romanic -only used as the first language by 1% of the population  MOST RECOGNIZED!

Economic Structure  Service economy  72% services  24% Industry  4% Farming

Religion  Catholicism-dominant religion in cities that experienced wave of immigration. 3 million people  Protestantism-second largest group. 2.7 million people  Orthodox Church-tripled in last 20 years by 1%  Judaism-most big cities have large Jewish population  Islam-about 150,000 belong to this swiss-muslim community  Buddhism-.5% of the Swedish population.

Tourism  Natural beauty of the land is what brings in the tourists  Tourism has increased the hotel industry in Switzerland by 2.7 percent making last year its best year ever for Hotels.

Sources  A Brief History of Switzerland. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar  Switzerland. MEME Organization, Web. 16 Mar  Allen, Matthew. Swiss Info.ch. SRG SSR, n.d. Web. 16 Mar  CIA The World Factbook. CIA, n.d. Web. 16 Mar  "Switzerland Flag - World Flags Switzerland Flags." Flags of the World. Web. 21 Mar  "CIA - The World Factbook." Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. Web. 21 Mar  "Languages in Switzerland." Professional Translation Services | Interpreters | Intercultural Communication & Training. Web. 21 Mar