Switzerland country profile

A landlocked, mountainous country, Switzerland's geographical position in central Europe and studied neutrality have given it the access and political stability to become one of the world's wealthiest countries.

Switzerland has for centuries been a neutral state, which means that it cannot take part in armed conflict unless it is attacked. Its forces can only be used for self-defence and internal security.

It joined the United Nations only in 2002. Surrounded by the European Union, it has vacillated between seeking closer engagement with its powerful neighbour and other international organisations, and preferring a more isolationist course.

The people are given a direct say in their own affairs under Switzerland's system of direct democracy, which has no parallel in any other country.

They are invited to the polls several times a year to vote in national or regional referendums and people's initiatives.

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SWISS CONFEDERATION: FACTS

• Capital: Bern, de facto

• Area: 41,285 sq km

• Population: 8.6 million

• Languages: French, German, Italian, Romansh

• Life expectancy: 81 years (men) 85 years (women)

Zurich is Swziterland's biggest city and its financial centre

LEADERS

Collective head of state: The Federal Council

Switzerland is unusual in having a collective head of state, the seven-member Federal Council, which doubles up as the country's cabinet.

The president of the Swiss Confederation, also known as the president of the Confederation or colloquially as the president of Switzerland, is the head of Federal Council. It is a largely ceremonial post.

Elected for one year, the officeholder chairs the meetings of the Federal Council but has no powers over and above the other six councillors.

The Federal Council was set up by the constitution of 1848, which is still in force today.

Members are elected for four-year terms by a joint session of both houses of parliament, although in practice changes in membership are rare, making the Federal Council one of the world's most stable governments.

The election of a new female minister to the Federal Council in September 2010 gave the cabinet a majority of women for the first time in the country's history.

MEDIA

Numerous international organisations, such as the UNHCR, are based in Switzerland

Broadcasting is dominated by the public Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), which operates in French, German, Italian and Romansh.

Most of its funding comes from TV licence fee revenues. Voters rejected a proposal to scrap the fee in a 2018 referendum.

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TIMELINE

Switzerland's defence is based on compulsory military service

Some key dates in the history of Switzerland:

1291 - Origin of the Old Swiss Confederacy when three cantons form an alliance to resist outside control. A loose confederation of independent small states or cantons, initially within the Holy Roman Empire.

1474-77 - Burgundian Wars, a conflict between Burgundy and the Old Swiss Confederacy and its allies, establishes the confederacy as a power in a European political landscape dominated by France and the Habsburgs.

1499 - After the Swabian War the confederacy is effectively independent, though still nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire until the Treaty of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War in 1648.

1798 - French invasion. Switzerland becomes a French client state.

1815 - In the wake of the Napoleonic wars, the borders of Switzerland - and the territory's neutrality - are established at the Congress of Vienna.

1847 - Brief civil war, the Sonderbund War: seven Catholic cantons formed the Sonderbund or "separate alliance" to protect their interests against a centralization of power. The war sees them defeated.

1848 - Federal constitution defines the political system, providing for a centralised government.

1874 - Revised constitution allows for the exercise of direct democracy by referendum.

1914-18 - Switzerland organises Red Cross units during World War One.

1919-20 - Treaty of Versailles reaffirms Swiss neutrality.

1920 - Joins League of Nations. League's headquarters established in Geneva.

Bern, Switzerland's de facto capital, is its fifth-most populous city, behind Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Lausanne

1923 - Customs union with Liechtenstein.

1939-45 - Federal Council issues a declaration of neutrality at start of Word War Two. Refuses to join United Nations.

1959 - Founder-member of European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

1963 - Joins Council of Europe.

1971 - Women granted right to vote in federal elections.

1985 - Referendum guarantees women legal equality with men within marriage.

1992 - Switzerland joins World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) but December referendum rejects membership of European Economic Area - a free-trade zone.

1995 - Swiss Banking Association announces - after pressure from Jewish groups - it has uncovered dormant pre-1945 bank accounts containing millions of dollars.

1998 - Swiss banks agree $1.25bn compensation deal with Holocaust survivors and families.

2002- A narrow majority of Swiss vote in favour of joining the United Nations in a referendum, and country becomes a member of the UN.

2008 - Switzerland scraps routine passport controls at all its borders after joining the EU's Schengen Agreement.

2009 - Switzerland says it will relax its rules on banking secrecy to allow financial institutions to co-operate with international investigations into tax evasion.

Swiss citizens frequently need to vote on controversial issues, such as immigration