Switzerland

The Swiss Federation is a mountainous country located in the Western, Central, and Southern Europe. In spite of that, the territory is not large. The land covers only 40,000 square kilometers, which is 132nd place in the world. It is important to notice that Switzerland is a land-locked country with the Alps covering most of its land.

Since it is a federal, semi-direct democracy under a multi-party assembly, there is no capital city according to the official naming. However, Berne is known as Federal City and it is de facto the capital of the nation.

Economy

Switzerland is considered to be one of the most competitive countries globally with incredibly large wealth per adult values. Due to its taxation laws, it is known as a tax haven for most people. However, its overall GDP is "only" $608 billion, which is approximately $0.6 trillion. When compared to other European Nations, it is a relatively low number. The growth of GDP isn’t attractive either, because it was approximately 0.9% in 2019.

The thing that makes Switzerland so unique and astonishing is its gigantic GDP per capita (with PPP factor included). According to the World Bank data recorded in 2019, it was a little over $70,000 per citizen. It is one of the largest GDP per capita around the world and approximately 30% higher than the average in Europe. It is the third largest GDP per capita in Europe. In terms of annual growth, it was very low, because 0.2%.

As a small country, Switzerland needs to trade a lot in order to acquire all the necessary resources. As a result, their exports and imports are incredibly large. $464 billion worth of merchandise is being sent every year, which is 66% of their entire GDP. In terms of imports, we can see here the value of $375 billion, roughly 53% in 2019.

Population

The Swiss Federation is one of the smallest countries in terms of population in Europe. There are roughly 8.5 million people, which is only 1.8% of the entire European population. Still, their land coverage is even smaller. As a result, their density is rather high because they rank 48th in that parameter. It is because there are 207 Swiss per square kilometer.

Interestingly, over 25% of its population are resident foreigners. Out of that group, Italians are the largest group of foreigners with more than 15% of the total foreign population. Another large group of foreigners are Germans (also 15%) and Immigrants from Portugal (12%).