Country · Europe
Switzerland
Swiss Confederation
Switzerland is a country in Western Europe. Its capital city is Bern. About 8.5 million people live there, in an area of 41 284 square kilometres.
Picture credit: Norbert Nagel (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Eissa69420 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Giles Laurent (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Andrew Bossi (CC BY-SA 2.5) · Andrew Bossi (CC BY-SA 2.5) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Switzerland?
Switzerland lies in Western Europe, on the continent of Europe.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 5 232 km from the equator.
Switzerland is landlocked: it has no coast at all, so you cannot reach the sea without crossing another country.
It shares a border with 5 countries: Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein and Germany.
How big is Switzerland?
Switzerland covers 41 284 square kilometres.
That is about 16 times the size of Luxembourg.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 132nd largest.
If everybody spread out evenly, there would be about 206.2 people on every square kilometre.
Who lives in Switzerland?
About 8.5 million people live in Switzerland.
That is the 99th biggest population in the world.
People here speak French, Swiss German, Italian and Romansh.
They pay with the Swiss franc (Fr.).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 80 years.
The land of Switzerland
The land in Switzerland sits on average 1 350 metres above sea level — high enough that much of it counts as mountain country.
Because it is landlocked, everything that arrives by ship has to cross one of its 5 neighbours first.
It lies between the tropics and the poles, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Switzerland different?
A dish the country is known for: Cervelat, Fondue and Rösti.
Websites from here often end in .ch.
Switzerland and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 1 live in Switzerland.
It takes up about 0.03 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Europe it is the 31st largest of 45 countries, and the 19th most populated.
That is busier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Switzerland and its neighbours
France, its largest neighbour, is about 13.4 times bigger.
France has more people: 67 million against 8.5 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 6 live wild in Switzerland: European badger, European hedgehog, Alpine ibex, Chamois, Alpine marmot and Eurasian lynx. The highest mountain we cover here is Matterhorn, at 4 478 metres. The longest river is the Rhine, running 1 230 km from source to mouth.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Where this country lands in the record lists
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Switzerland?
The capital of Switzerland is Bern. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Switzerland?
About 8.5 million people live in Switzerland, which makes it the 99th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Switzerland?
Switzerland borders Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein and Germany — 5 neighbours in total.
How big is Switzerland?
Switzerland covers 41 284 square kilometres, making it the 132nd largest country in the world. That is about 16 times the size of Luxembourg.
Which continent is Switzerland in?
Switzerland is in Europe, in the part called Western Europe.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
Last checked: · How these pages are made