Switzerland sits at the crossroads of several major European cultures, which have heavily influenced the country's languages and cultural practices. Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. 

The German spoken in the German speaking part of Switzerland is predominantly a range of Swiss dialects, but newspapers and some broadcasts use High German as used in Germany. Many Swiss speak more than one language. English is widely known, especially among professionals.

More than 75% of the population live in the central plain, which stretches between the Alps and the Jura Mountains and from Geneva in the southwest to the Rhine River and Lake Constance in the northeast. Resident foreigners and temporary foreign workers make up about 20% of the population.

Almost all Swiss are literate. Switzerland's 13 institutes of higher learning enrolled 99,600 students in the academic year of 2001-02. About 25% of the adult population holds a diploma of higher learning.

The constitution guarantees freedom of worship and the different religious communities co-exist peacefully.

Switzerland consistently ranks high on quality of life indices, including per capita income, concentration of computer and internet usage per capita, and insurance coverage per individual and health care rates. 

temperate, but varies with altitude; cold, cloudy, rainy/snowy winters; cool to warm, cloudy, humid summers with occasional showers 

mostly mountains (Alps in south, Jura in northwest) with a central plateau of rolling hills, plains, and large lakes 

The police registered a total of 332,452 criminal offences in 2003, including 187 killings and 547 cases of rape. In the same year, 86,186 adults (85% of them male, 51.1% of them Swiss citizens) were convicted under criminal law. 54.8% of convictions were for traffic offences, 37.9% of punishments were in the form of fines only. In the same year, 13,483 minors (82% of them male, 61.4% of them of Swiss nationality, 79.5% aged between 15 and 18) were convicted.

26 cantons (cantons, singular - canton in French; cantoni, singular - cantone in Italian; kantone, singular - kanton in German); Aargau, Ausser-Rhoden, Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Bern, Fribourg, Geneve, Glarus, Graubunden, Inner-Rhoden, Jura, Luzern, Neuchatel, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Sankt Gallen, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, Thurgau, Ticino, Uri, Valais, Vaud, Zug, Zurich 

civil law system influenced by customary law; judicial review of legislative acts, except with respect to federal decrees of general obligatory character; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations 

Federal Council or German - Bundesrat, French - Conseil Federal, Italian - Consiglio Federale elected by the Federal Assembly from among its own members for a four-year term

president and vice president elected by the Federal Assembly from among the members of the Federal Council for one-year terms that run concurrently

bicameral Federal Assembly or German - Bundesversammlung, French - Assemblee Federale, Italian - Assemblea Federale consists of the Council of States or German - Standerat, French - Conseil des Etats, Italian - Consiglio degli Stati (46 seats; members are elected two from each canton and one from each half canton to serve four-year terms) and the National Council or German - Nationalrat, French - Conseil National, Italian - Consiglio Nazionale (200 seats; members are elected by popular vote on a basis of proportional representation to serve four-year terms) 

red square with a bold, equilateral white cross in the centre that does not extend to the edges of the flag 

money-laundering centre; transit country for and consumer of South American cocaine and Southwest Asian heroin