Switzerland
Schweiz
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Did you know
Swiss animal-welfare rules forbid keeping a guinea pig alone: it needs at least one companion of its own kind. (source)
Elders in numbers
On 3 March 2024, 58.25% of Swiss voters approved a 13th annual payment of the state old-age pension. (source)
- of people are 65 or older
- 20.4%
- people aged 65 or older
- 1.9M
- will be 65 or older in 2050
- 30.2%
- is how long people live after 60, on average
- 25.8 years
- of people 65+ live alone
- 30.4%
- women 39.6%, men 19.6%
- of people 65+ live in collective quarters: care homes, hospitals, hostels and the like
- 7.2%
Sources: World Bank, 2025; World Bank projection for 2050; WHO, 2023; UN, 2022; UN, 2000 census
Languages
17 languages, 9 of them endangered
- ArpitanDefinitely endangered
- Swiss-French Sign LanguageDefinitely endangered
- Swiss-German Sign LanguageDefinitely endangered
- Swiss-Italian Sign LanguageDefinitely endangered
- YenishDefinitely endangered
- BavarianVulnerable
- RomanshVulnerable
- Swiss GermanVulnerable
- Walser GermanVulnerable
- Balkan Romani
- Carpathian Romani
- French
Show all 17
- German
- Italian
- Lombard
- Serbisk
- Vlax Romani
Languages and their status: Glottolog v5.3, CC BY 4.0. Names: Wikidata.
UNESCO intangible heritage
- Yodelling2025
- Art of dry stone construction, knowledge and techniques2024
- Alpine pasture season2023
- Traditional irrigation: knowledge, technique, and organization2023
- Craft techniques and customary practices of cathedral workshops, or Bauhütten, in Europe, know-how, transmission, development of knowledge and innovation2020
- Craftsmanship of mechanical watchmaking and art mechanics2020
- Holy Week processions in Mendrisio2019
- Alpinism2019
Show all 11
List and years: ich.unesco.org
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