Interesting Facts About Switzerland

By: http://ohfact.com/

Switzerland (/ˈswɪtsərlənd/), officially the Swiss Confederation, is

a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city

of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities.The country is situated

in Western-Central Europe,and is bordered by Italy to the

south, France to the west, Germany to the north,

and Austria and Liechtensteinto the east. Switzerland is a landlocked

country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and

the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps

occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of

approximately eight million people is concentrated mostly on the

plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the

two global cities and economic centres Zürichand Geneva.

Read More At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland

Intersting Facts About Switzerland

Switzerland is prepared for a nuclear war, if there ever was

one – there are enough nuclear fallout shelters to accommodate

its entire human population, due to laws that require everybody

to have access to a shelter in their building or nearby. The Swiss

military keeps fully stocked artillery bunkers, disguised as quaint

country homes, in the middle of populated villages.

In Switzerland citizens can challenge any law passed by

Parliament –provided they can gather 50,000 signatures against

the law within 100 days. If succesful, a national vote is held and

voters decide by a simple majority whether to accept or reject the

law.

Switzerland is one of the only two countries to have a square

flag – the Vatican has the only other square flag in the world. The

Swiss flag is a red square with a white cross in the centre.

Switzerland's main access points are wired to blow in case of an

attack – one of the country's defense strategies is to demolish

every main road, bridge and railway access into Switzerland in

case of a foreign invasion, with at least 3,000 locations around the

country prepared to blow at a moment’s notice.

Coffee in Zurich is the most expensive in the world – costing an

average CHF3.65 (USD 3.65) in the Coffee Price Index 2016, with

Copenhagen, Basel, Bern and Geneva rounding out the top five

respectively. Switzerland was also the origin of instant coffee

when the Nestlé Company, started by Swiss businessman Henri

Nestlé in 1867, created Nescafe in 1938.

Switzerland boasts some of the world's most famous

inventions – they created Velcro, cellophane, the Swiss Army

Knife, absinthe, the potato peeler, Helvetica font, LSD,

muesli, edible chocolate gold and milk chocolate to name a few.

They were also pioneers in introducing bobsleigh, tobogganing

and luge as a competitive sport to the world.

Swiss men have the longest life expectancy in the world – in

2015 life expectancy at birth was 81.3 years for Swiss men and

85.3 years for Swiss women, according to World Health

Organization (WHO). This puts Switzerland second (after Japan)

for the average longest life expectancy. The population is also

ageing; in 2015, almost one-fifth of the population was 65.

Swiss law prohibits owning 'soclal' pets unless you have two of

them – this makes it illegal in Switzerland to keep just one guinea

pig, mouse, ferret, fish, canary, pig or other social creature. With

the world's most stringent animal welfare laws, Switzerland

judges isolation for such animals as abuse. This has sparked

services such as a lawyer who defends animals and a pet-renting

service in case one of a pair dies and the owner wants to avoid a

pet-buying cycle to abide by the pairing law.

There are Swiss taxes for owning a dog – annual taxes are

determined by the dog's size and weight. Dog owners are also

required to take a training course to learn how to properly care

for their pets.

Switzerland is one of the world's best places to be born, live and

be happy– according to consistently high rankings in global

reports. Switzerland was ranked the world's happiest country in

2015, and came second in 2016 (after Denmark) out of 156

countries, while Zurich was named the second best city to live in

Mercer's Quality of Living Report 2016 (after Vienna), and tied

with Bern and Helsinki as the second best city for personal

safesty, far above London (72) or the US (where no city ranked in

the top 50). According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU)

latest Where to be Born Index (2013), Switzerland was the best

country to be born.

There are 208 mountains over 3,000m high – with 24 of them

over 4,000m. The highest is Monte Rosa (Dufoursptiz) at 4,634m,

situated on the Swiss/Italian border.

Switzerland's climate is not all about snowy mountains – cold,

snowy winters were historically the norm but freezing

temperatures and large snowfalls are less the case today,

especially in lowland areas. Many Swiss ski resorts would struggle

to survive without artifical snow. During hot summers,

temperatures have been known to exceed 30–35°C in some areas.

The Alps acts as a climate barrier: northern Switzerland tends to

get colder from Atlantic winds, while southern Switzerland has a

milder climate influenced by Mediterranean winds.

Parents can be overruled on what they call their child – in

Switzerland it is prohibited to give a child a name that could

damage the child's interest. This right was exercised when

authorities banned Swiss musician Christine Lauterburg from

calling her daughter 'Lexicon'.

Switzerland is also known as Confoederatio Helvetica – which

explains the abbreviation CH. It's officially named the Swiss

Confederation for historical reasons, although modern

Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with

Bern as the federal city. The founding of the Swiss Confederation

traditionally dates to 1 August 1291 and is celebrated annually

as Swiss National Day.

Switzerland has a considerable wealth gap between rich and

poor – the top 20 percent of the population earn more than four

times as much as the bottom 20 percent, according to the OCED.

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