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Population growth in Switzerland is mostly due to immigration: in 2009, there have been 78,286 live births recorded (74% Swiss, 26% foreign nationalities), contrasting with 62,476 deaths (92% Swiss, 8% foreigners). Thus, of the population growth rate of 1.1% during 2009, about 0.2% are due to births, and 0.9% due to immigration.
Switzerland’s mountainous geography and lack of natural resources historically led the Swiss to seek economic opportunities abroad. While some immigrants did settle in the region, the influx of significant migrant groups to Switzerland began primarily in the late 19th century, coinciding with industrialization.
Article 3 of the Law of 26 October 1978 on political rights states that foreigners may vote in municipal elections provided that they have been resident in the canton for at least ten years and in their respective municipality for at least 30 days. It states that foreigners enjoying the right to vote can also stand for election at municipal level.
Switzerland's 13 institutes of higher learning enrolled 99,600 students in the academic year of 2001–02. About 25% of the adult population hold a diploma of higher learning. According to the CIA World Factbook data for 2003, 99% of the Swiss population aged 15 and over could read and write, with the rate being identical for both sexes.
German citizens have mostly settled in Zürich and the city's wider metropolitan area. Already at the historical maximum of German presence in Switzerland in 1910, German population in Zürich was as high as 41,000 or 22% of the city's total population. As of 2009, German population in Zürich was at about 30,000, or close to 8%. [4]
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state [1] with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848. Each canton has its own constitution, legislature, government and courts. [2]
Switzerland has a relatively high number of small municipalities, with a population of 1,000 or less, especially in rural areas. Because of the increasing difficulty in providing professional government services and in finding volunteers for political offices in small municipalities, the cantons tend to encourage voluntary mergers of ...
Transition in stages until free person movement between the European Union and Switzerland. As of 2014, 23.4% of Switzerland's population are foreigners (9% in Germany). The net immigration is 80,000 people per year, 1% of the total population (three times more than e.g. in Germany, four times more than in the United States).