ked; crossroads of northern and southern Europe; along with
southeastern France, northern Italy, and southwestern Austria, has
the highest elevations in the Alps

People Switzerland

Population:
7,523,934 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 16.3% (male 637,585/female 591,297)
15-64 years: 68.1% (male 2,585,062/female 2,539,345)
65 years and over: 15.6% (male 480,198/female 690,447) (2006 est.)

Median age:
total: 40.1 years
male: 39 years
female: 41.1 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
0.43% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
9.71 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
8.49 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
3.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.7 male(s)/female
total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
total: 4.34 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 4.84 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 3.81 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 80.51 years
male: 77.69 years
female: 83.48 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate:
1.43 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
0.4% (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
13,000 (2001 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
less than 100 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Swiss (singular and plural)
adjective: Swiss

Ethnic groups:
German 65%, French 18%, Italian 10%, Romansch 1%, other 6%

Religions:
Roman Catholic 41.8%, Protestant 35.3%, Orthodox 1.8%, other
Christian 0.4%, Muslim 4.3%, other 1%, unspecified 4.3%, none 11.1%
(2000 census)

Languages:
German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 20.4%, Italian
(official) 6.5%, Serbo-Croatian 1.5%, Albanian 1.3%, Portuguese
1.2%, Spanish 1.1%, English 1%, Romansch 0.5%, other 2.8% (2000
census)
note: German, French, Italian, and Romansch are all national
languages, but only the first three are official languages

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99%
male: 99%
female: 99% (2003 est.)

Government Switzerland

Country name:
conventional long form: Swiss Confederation
conventional short form: Switzerland
local long form: Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (German);
Confederation Suisse (