Demographics of Switzerland

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Switzerland, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Switzerland has a population of 7.8 million as of 2010. Its population has quadrupled over the period 1800 to 1990 (average doubling time 95 years). Population growth was steepest in the period after World War II (1.4% per annum during 1950-1970, doubling time 50 years), it slowed down during the 1970s to 1980s and has since again picked up to 1% during the 2000s (doubling time 70 years).

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.

Encompassing the Central Alps, Switzerland sits at the crossroads of several major European cultures. Its population includes a two-thirds majority of Alemannic German speakers and a one-quarter Latin minority (French, Italian and [[Romansh language|Romansh]), see linguistic geography of Switzerland. 10% of the population natively speak an immigrant language.

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.

The population of Switzerland 1970-2005. Data from Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2005; number of inhabitants in thousands.

Census

The Federal Population Census (German: Eidgenössische Volkszählung, French: Recensement fédéral de la population, Italian: Censimento federale della popolazione, Romansh: Dumbraziun federala dal pievel) has been carried out every 10 years starting in 1850.^[1] The census was initiated by Federal Councillor Stefano Franscini, who evaluated the data of the first census all by himself after Parliament failed to provide the necessary funds.^[2] The census is now being conducted by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, which makes most results available on its website.

Collected data includes population data (citizenship, place of residence, place of birth, position in household, number of children, religion, languages, education, profession, place of work, etc.), household data (number of individuals living in the household, etc.), accommodation data (surface area, amount of rent paid, etc.) and building data (geocoordinates, time of construction, number of floors, etc.). Participation is compulsory and reached 99.87% of the population in 2000.^[3]

Starting in 2010, the census will cease to be conducted through written questionnaires distributed nationwide. Instead, data in existing population registers will be used. That data will be supplemented with a biannual questionnaire sample of 200,000 people as well as regular microcensuses.^[4] The motivation for this change was financial, as the full census created costs for the federation of the order of CHF 100 million. The change was criticized by experts as degrading the statistical basis for numerous applications in demographic planning.^[5]

Population

Total of registered residents (numbers relate to 31 December):^[6][7]

Growth rate

During the 19th and 20th centuries, population growth rate has been at 0.7% to 0.8%, with a doubling time of ca. 90 years. In the later 20th century, the growth rate has fallen below 0.7% (1980s: 0.64%; 1990s: 0.65%), and in the 2000s it has risen again slightly (2000–2006: 0.69%), mostly due to immigration. In 2007 the population grew at a much higher 1.1% rate, again mostly due to immigration. For 2008, the population grew 1.6%, a level not seen since the early 1960's^[8].

• Birth rate: 10.4 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)
• Death rate: 8.75 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)
• Net migration rate: 1.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)
• Infant mortality rate: 4.53 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate^[9]

• 1.46 children born/woman (total)
• 1.33 children born/Swiss woman
• 1.86 children born/non-Swiss woman

Age structure

Age Structure 2007. Blue diamonds represent total population in thousands, green triangles represent Swiss Citizens in thousands, and red circles represent foreign population in thousands.

Data: Swiss Federal Statistics Office^[10]

As population growth curbs, the percentage of elderly people increases. In July 2006, the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics published a projection estimating that by 2050, one in three adult Swiss will be of retirement age (as opposed to one in five in 2005). Total population was projected to stagnate in 2036 at around 8.1 million and fall slightly to 8 million in 2050. The predicted age structure for 2050 is:

0-20 years: 1,4 million (18%)

20-64 years: 4,4 million (55%)

65 and over: 2,2 million (27%)

Sex ratio

Data: Swiss Federal Statistics Office ^[10] 2007

Life expectancy at birth

According to statistics released by the federal government in 2008, life expectancy stands at 79.7 years for men and 84.4 years for women, for an overall average of 82.1 years for the populace as a whole.^[11]

Nationality

The number of registered resident foreigners was 1,001,887 (16.17%) in 1970. This amount decreased to 904,337 (14.34%) in 1979, and has increased steadily since that time, passing the 20% mark during 2001 and rising to 1,524,663 (20.56%) in 2004. The number of Swiss citizens thus numbered about 5.9 million in that year.

In 2007, 1.45 million resident foreigners (85.4%, or 19.1% of the total population^[12]), had European citizenship (Italian: 295,507; German: 224,324; citizens of Serbia and Montenegro: 196,078; Portuguese: 193,299; French: 83,129; Turkish: 75,382; Spanish: 66,519, Macedonian: 60,509; Bosnian: 41,654; Croatian: 38,144; Austrian: 36,155; British: 32,207). ; 109,113 residents were from Asia; 69,010 from the Americas; 66,599 from Africa; and 3,777 from Oceania^[13].

In 2004, 35,700 people acquired Swiss citizenship according to Swiss nationality law, a figure slightly larger than that of the previous year (35,424), and four times larger than the 1990 figure (8,658). About a third of those naturalized are from a successor state of Former Yugoslavia: 7,900 Serbia-Montenegro, 2,400 Bosnia-Herzegowina, 2,000 Macedonia, 1,600 Croatia. 4,200 were from Italy, 3,600 from Turkey, 1,600 from Sri Lanka, 1,200 from Portugal, and 1,200 from France^[14].

The yearly rate of naturalization has quintupled over the 1990s and 2000s, from roughly 9,000 to 45,000. Relative to the population of resident foreigners, this amounts to an increase from 8‰ in 1990 to 27‰ in 2007, or relative to the number of Swiss citizens from 1.6‰ in 1990 to 7.3‰ in 2007. The following table shows the historical development of the rate of naturalization.^[15]

In recent decades, many Portuguese and Ukrainians from the Ukraine represent large immigrant communities in the country. Tamil refugees fleeing from war in Sri Lanka are the largest number of Asians, while ethnic Albanians and other former Yugoslavians continue to grow in number. Switzerland is also the second largest European country in number of acceptance of Iraqi refugees fleeing from the violence in Iraq since 2003, but behind Great Britain, Germany and Sweden in the number of Iraqis taken residence for a European country.

In 2004, 623,100 Swiss citizens (8.9%) lived abroad, the largest group in France (166,200), followed by the USA (71,400) and Germany (70,500). (see Swiss diaspora).

Religions

Distribution of denominations in Switzerland in 2008 (green: Protestant, red: Catholic)

In 2000, 5.78 million residents (79.2%, compared to 93.8% in 1980) were Christian (Roman Catholic 41.8%, Protestant 35.3%, Orthodox 1.8%). 809,800 (11.1%, compared to 3.8% in 1980) were without any religious affiliation. 310,800 (4.3%) were Muslim (compared to 0.9% in 1980), 17,900 (0.2%) were Jewish. These numbers are based on membership in a congregation, not on direct statements of belief. The 2005 Eurobarometer poll^[16] found 48% of Swiss residents to be theist, 39% expressing belief in "some sort of spirit or life force", 9% atheist and 4 % said that they "don't know".

Languages

Main languages in Switzerland:^[17]
German (63.7%),
French (20.4%),
Italian (6.5%),
Romansh (0.5%)

The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. Native speakers number about 64% (4.6 million) for German (mostly Swiss German dialects), 20% (1.5 million, mostly Swiss French, but including some Franco-Provençal dialects) for French, 7% (0.5 million, mostly Swiss Italian, but including Insubric dialects) for Italian and less than 0.5% (35,000) for Romansh.

The non-official language with the largest group of native speakers is Serbo-Croatian with 103,000 speakers in 2000, followed by Albanian with 95,000, Portuguese with 89,500, Spanish with 77,500, English with 73,000, Macedonian 61,300,^[18] and a total of 173,000 speakers of other languages, amounting to roughly 10% of the population with a native language not among the four official languages.^[19]

Literacy

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. According to the CIA World Factbook data for 2003, 99% of the Swiss population aged 15 and over could read and write, with the rate being identical for both sexes.^[20]

Delinquency

The police registered a total of 332,452 criminal offenses in 2003, including 187 killings and 547 cases of rape. In the same year, 86,186 adults (85% of them male, 51.1% of them Swiss citizens) were convicted under criminal law. 54.8% of convictions were for traffic offences, 37.9% of punishments were in the form of fines only. In the same year, 13,483 minors (82% of them male, 61.4% of them of Swiss nationality, 79.5% aged between 15 and 18) were convicted.

See also

• List of Swiss people
• Switzerland
• Immigration to Europe
• List of countries by immigrant population
• Politics of Switzerland
• Poverty in Switzerland
• Metropolitan areas in Switzerland
• Albanians in Switzerland

References

External links

• Swiss Federal Office of Statistics
  • thematic maps