Swiss people

The Swiss people (German: die Schweizer, French: les Suisses, Italian: gli Svizzeri, Romansh: ils Svizzers) are the citizens of the multi-ethnic Swiss Confederation (Switzerland) regardless of ethno-cultural background[lower-alpha 2] or people of self-identified Swiss ancestry.

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Swiss people
Schweizer / Suisses / Svizzeri / Svizzers

Flag of Switzerland, a federal symbol used to represent all Swiss citizens
Official photo of the Federal Council (2008), idealized depiction of a multi-ethnic Swiss society.
Total population
c. 8–9 million (2016)[lower-alpha 1]
Regions with significant populations
Switzerland 6.4 million (2019)[1]
Swiss abroad	0.8 million (2016)[2]
Swiss ancestry	c. 1.5 million[3]
France	220,730
Germany	103,000
Belgium	82,192
Luxembourg	1,000-82,000
United States	81,075
Uruguay	60,000
Italy	51,895
Peru	51,000
Canada	40,280
United Kingdom	34,971
Turkey	29,144
Spain	25,168
Australia	25,148
Israel	19,433
Austria	19,000
Argentina	15,816
Brazil	15,321
South Africa	9,132
Netherlands	8,000
Sweden	5,920
Mexico	5,489
Chile	5,366
Portugal	4,713
Norway	2,000
China	1,714
Greece	1,000
Albania	1,000
Russia	1,000
Singapore	1,000
Thailand	1,000
Finland	1,000
Japan	1,000
Philippines	1,000
Languages
Swiss German, Swiss Standard German, Bolze Swiss French, Frainc-Comtou, Franco-Provençal Swiss Italian, Lombard Romansh Swiss-German Sign, Swiss-Italian Sign, Swiss-French Sign
Religion
Roman Catholicism, Swiss Reformed, atheism[4]
Related ethnic groups
Romansh, Liechtensteiners, Germans, Austrians, French, Italians and Celtic peoples

The number of Swiss nationals has grown from 1.7 million in 1815 to 8.7 million in 2020. More than 1.5 million Swiss citizens hold multiple citizenship.[5] About 11% of citizens live abroad (0.8 million, of whom 0.6 million hold multiple citizenship). About 60% of those living abroad reside in the European Union (0.46 million). The largest groups of Swiss descendants and nationals outside Europe are found in the United States, Brazil and Canada.

Although the modern state of Switzerland originated in 1848, the period of romantic nationalism, it is not a nation-state, and the Swiss are not a single ethnic group, but rather are a confederacy (Eidgenossenschaft) or Willensnation ("nation of will", "nation by choice", that is, a consociational state), a term coined in conscious contrast to "nation" in the conventionally linguistic or ethnic sense of the term.

The demonym Swiss (formerly in English also called Switzer) and the name of Switzerland, ultimately derive from the toponym Schwyz, have been in widespread use to refer to the Old Swiss Confederacy since the 16th century.[6]