People

Population: 7,523,934 (July 2006 estimate) (growth rate): 0.43% (2006 estimate)

Gdp: $252.9 billion (2006 estimate) (per capita): $33,600 (2006 estimate)

Languages:
German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 20.4%, Italian (official) 6.5%, Serbo-Croatian 1.5%, Albanian 1.3%, Portuguese 1.2%, Spanish 1.1%, English 1%, Romansch 0.5%, other 2.8% (2000 census) note: German, French, Italian, and Romansch are all national languages, but only the first three are official languages

Government

Capital: Bern

Government type: formally a confederation, but similar in structure to a federal republic

Geography

Natural Resources: hydropower potential, salt, timber