Switzerland

Switzerland is a small country in Europe.

It has no sea. It has tall, snowy mountains called the Alps. It has big lakes too. Bern is the city where the government meets.

Switzerland is a small country in central Europe with no coastline. It is only about 220 kilometers from north to south and 350 kilometers from west to east, but it is packed with mountains, glaciers, lakes and green valleys.

About 9.1 million people live in Switzerland. Bern is the seat of the government. People in different parts of the country speak different languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh are all national languages.

Switzerland is a landlocked federal state of central Europe, about half the area of Scotland (41,291 km²), extending about 220 km from north to south and 350 km from west to east. Bern is the administrative capital and Lausanne the judicial center. The country is a union of more than 3,000 communes in 26 cantons.

The Federal Statistical Office counted 9,127,125 people in 2025, a growth of 0.8 percent. Britannica notes that most Swiss live in towns and cities, and the urban share was 84.9 percent in 2023. Citizens take part in politics at every level and directly decide many policies through referenda and initiatives, and Geneva hosts many international organizations, including many associated with the United Nations, which Switzerland joined only in the early 21st century.

Zurich is the biggest city in Switzerland.

It is by a big lake. Bern has old streets with covered sidewalks and fountains. A river curves around it. Geneva is a city by another big lake.

Zurich, on a large lake where the mountains meet the plains, is the biggest city, with about 452,000 people (2025). Geneva and Lausanne are the main cities of the French-speaking west, and Lugano and Bellinzona are in the Italian-speaking south.

Bern was founded in the 1100s on a hill almost surrounded by the Aare River. Its old city has arcades, covered walkways along the streets, from the 1400s and fountains from the 1500s, and it is a World Heritage Site. Its clock tower, the Zytglogge, stands in the old city.

Zurich (452,421 people in 2025, Wikidata) is by far the largest and most cosmopolitan city. Basel and Lucerne are major German-speaking cities, Geneva and Lausanne lead the French-speaking cantons, and Bellinzona and Lugano are the principal cities of Italian-speaking Ticino. Geneva in particular hosts many governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

Bern, founded in the 12th century on a hill site enclosed by the Aare, grew according to an exceptionally coherent plan; its Old City, inscribed by UNESCO in 1983, keeps 15th-century arcades and 16th-century fountains, and most of the medieval town was restored in the 18th century without losing its character. Britannica notes that the city's name derives from the bear pits the canton's medieval rulers established there as a heraldic symbol. On Lake Geneva, UNESCO's Lavaux vineyard terraces (2007) run about 30 km along the north shore and date back to the 11th century.

Switzerland has very high mountains.

The tallest is called Dufourspitze. Rivers of ice called glaciers flow down slowly. Big rivers start in the Swiss mountains.

Switzerland has three regions: the Jura Mountains in the northwest, the Alps in the south and east, and the Mittelland, a hilly plateau in between where most people live. The highest point is the Dufourspitze, 4,634 meters, and the pointed Matterhorn, 4,478 meters, has long been a symbol of the country.

The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps and in all of Eurasia. Switzerland lies at the center of Europe's rivers: the Rhine flows north to the North Sea and the Rhône flows west toward the Mediterranean. On the Rhine stand the Rhine Falls, near Schaffhausen.

Switzerland lies at Europe's hydrographic center: from its central Alps the Rhône flows west to the Mediterranean, the Rhine east and north to the North Sea, the Ticino south to the Po and the Reuss north, while from Piz Lunghin in the Engadin, waters drain toward the North, Adriatic and Black seas. The Jura covers about one-eighth of the country and the Mittelland nearly one-fourth, between Lake Geneva and Lake Constance; the Alps, built of massive overthrusts shaped by glaciation, fill the rest.

The Dufourspitze (4,634 m) is the highest point; the Matterhorn reaches 4,478 m. UNESCO's Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch site (2001, later extended to 82,400 ha) includes the most glaciated part of the Alps and the largest glacier in Eurasia, and documents glacier retreat linked to climate change. Four air masses meet over Switzerland; precipitation rises with altitude, from about 1,300 mm at St. Gallen to more than 2,800 mm on Säntis 20 km away, and the warm, dry foehn wind can raise temperatures suddenly, especially in spring.

Marmots live in high mountain meadows.

Chamois climb the rocky slopes. Ibexes live there too. Eagles fly over the forests.

Most of Switzerland's wild animals are Alpine animals. Hikers may see marmots in the high meadows and chamois on the slopes. The Alpine ibex had died out in the Swiss Alps, but it was brought back, and large herds live there again.

In the forests live deer, foxes, badgers, squirrels and many birds, including eagles. Animals are protected in Switzerland except during a short hunting season each year.

Britannica describes Switzerland's fauna as primarily Alpine, mixed with species of southern and north-central Europe, and protected except during a brief annual hunting season. Marmots live in high meadows and chamois on the slopes. The ibex, which had died out in the Swiss Alps, was reintroduced, and large herds now live in several areas, especially the Bernina region of Graubünden and the Saastal in Valais.

Forests hold deer, rabbits, foxes, badgers, squirrels and many birds, including eagles. Lake and river trout are found but are less abundant than in the past, snakes and lizards are concentrated in the south, and insects of great variety are found throughout. UNESCO notes that the Jungfrau-Aletsch area shows plant succession on ground left bare by retreating glaciers.

About 9 million people live in Switzerland.

They speak different languages in different places. Many speak German or French. Some speak Italian or Romansh. Cheese fondue is a famous dish.

Switzerland has four national languages. More than three in five people speak German, one in five speaks French, about one in twelve speaks Italian, and fewer than one in a hundred speaks Romansh. People who live close together may speak very different dialects, and English is widely spoken too.

Cheese dishes are typical of the Alps. Fondue is melted Emmentaler and Gruyère cheese with wine, into which people dip bread, and raclette is cheese melted over a fire and scraped onto potatoes. Swiss chocolate grew out of the need to use the region's plentiful milk.

German, French, Italian and Romansh all have national status. At the start of the 21st century more than three-fifths of the population spoke German, one-fifth French, about one-twelfth Italian and less than 1 percent Romansh, and people living close together may speak nearly mutually unintelligible dialects. About one in five residents were foreigners at the turn of the century, up from about 5 percent during World War II. Britannica notes invisible lines between historically Protestant and historically Roman Catholic districts.

Swiss cuisine varies by region. Fondue neuchâteloise, the national dish, and raclette come from the Alpine cheese tradition; German-speaking Switzerland favors Rösti (fried shredded potatoes), western Switzerland shows French influence, and Ticino shares pasta, polenta and risotto with Italy. The chocolate industry grew from the need to use abundant milk from the pre-Alpine dairying regions.