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Welcome To Switzerland
Country number
193
Selected MR Agencies

An Introduction to Switzerland

The Alps make up most of the land of the Swiss Confederation, most of whose population live on the Swiss Plateau between them and the Jura mountains. Switzerland prides itself on neutrality - it has not been in a state of international war since 1815, did not join the UN until 2002, and is the birthplace of the Red Cross. Although not part of the EU, it is a major trading nation, both for import and exports, is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of GDP and has a high quality of life. Swiss neutrality has been controversial at times, with its banks providing no-questions-asked homes for Nazi gold and the riches of more recent dictators and fugitives. See full country profile.

Latest Research News from Europe (Other)

Mar 26
Advertising Resource Management (ARM) software company MINT has appointed Christoph Kruse as Global Marketing Director. He was previously Director of Regional Marketing in Europe at Outbrain. Mar 26 2024
Mar 18
European research agency Bilendi has appointed Cecilia Glauser as the Country Manager for Sweden, replacing Björn Söderlin. Mar 18 2024


11 current Other European jobs including:

Research Manager - Social Insights, Remote Working (GMT plus / minus 3h time zone), GBP 35-42,000 (depending on qualifications, expertise and experience) - (posted Mar 7 2024)
Survey Research Manager, Remote Working - Worldwide, $ Competitive salary - (posted Feb 27 2024)
Head of Consumer Market Intelligence (CMI), Kilchberg, Switzerland, CHF Competitive - (posted Nov 20 2023)
Head of Consumer Market Intelligence (CMI), Kilchberg, Switzerland, CHF Competitive - (posted Nov 17 2023)


Fast Facts
Map of Switzerland
CAPITAL: Bern
GOVERNMENT: Federal republic, with directorial system and direct democracy
AREA: 41,285 sq km
POPULATION: 7,952,600 (July 2011 est.)
MAJOR LANGUAGE: Official Languages: German (63.7%); French (20.4%); Italian (6.5%); and Romansh (0.5%)
The Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps


Particularly Interesting CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), established in 1954 in the northwest suburbs of Geneva, is the world's largest particle physics laboratory and dedicated to high-energy experimentation. It's also the place where the WorldWideWeb was concocted back in the 1990s by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee, the original Mr Web. Its core achievements - the Web having been but a sideshow - include the discovery of W and Z bosons in 1983, discoveries relating to neutrinos in 1989, the first creation of antimatter particles (atoms of antihydrogen) in 1995 and the apparent discovery of the much-hyped Higgs Boson in the summer of 2012. Most of CERN's current activities are directed towards operating the newly completed Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which uses the 27km circumference circular tunnel previously occupied by the Large Electron-positron Collider (LEP) but has been constructed at enormous cost and now beams colossal amounts of data to collaborating research institutes around the world. One of the principle aims of the LHC is to understand more about the functioning and source of gravity, in which some believe the Higgs plays a key part.

A little More Knowledge?
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Switzerland in Profile

The Alps make up most of the land of the Swiss Confederation, most of whose population live on the Swiss Plateau between them and the Jura mountains. Switzerland prides itself on neutrality - it has not been in a state of international war since 1815, did not join the UN until 2002, and is the birthplace of the Red Cross. Although not part of the EU, it is a major trading nation, both for import and exports, is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of GDP and has a high quality of life. Swiss neutrality has been controversial at times, with its banks providing no-questions-asked homes for Nazi gold and the riches of more recent dictators and fugitives.

Predominantly German-speaking, the country also has major French- and Italian-speaking communities and a smaller community speaking another language, Romansh. It grew from a confederation of three states or cantons which formed a loose alliance for defence as long ago as 1291 - growing to eight the following century and cementing its independence with military victories over the Habsburgs, Burgundians and Holy Roman Empire. It has maintained its independence ever since, despite being often surrounded by hostile powers and sometimes suffering defeats in battle.Switzerland's famously beautiful mountain environment is more fragile and more sensitive to climate change than is commonly realised, with many small ecosystems within it.

Some Business and General Info

GDP: $$339.9 bn (2010 est.); $43,369 per capita

Religions Roman Catholic 38.8%; Protestant 30.9%; No religion 20.1%; Islam 4.5%; Other 5.7%

Currency: Swiss franc (CHF); CHF 1 = c.$US 1

Telephone Code: + 41

Overview of the Research Industry

MR Association(s):

Verband Schweizer Marketing -und Sozialforscher (VSMS)

Switzerland is the 17th largest research market in the world, and the 9th largest in Europe. 86 percent of MR turnover comes from domestic clients and 14 percent from international. According to the ESOMAR Global Prices Study 2012 the country was the 2nd most expensive for carrying out research.
Source: ESOMAR

Overview of Trade and Industry

Switzerland has a prosperous and stable hi-tech economy, and is by some rankings the wealthiest country in the world per capita, including financial and non-financial assets (rather a lot of countries seem to claim similar things - see Liechtenstein, Monaco, Bermuda etc..). With Europe's most free and the world's most competitive economy (World Economic Forum stats), low taxes and very strong exports, it also has strong public services and is home to many major global corporations.

Manufacturing is its single most important sector, with specialist chemicals, pharmaceutical goods and scientific and musical instruments all important. With all this, it's fair to say that growth was unusually slow in the 1990s and early 2000s, that home ownership is low and housing and food prices high - the latter influenced by the country's agricultural protectionism.

Exports were $308.3 bn in 2011 with Germany (19.2% in 2009), the US (10.2%), Italy (7.9%), France (7.7%) and the UK (5.9%) the main partners. Imports were $299.6bn in 2011 - Germany is again the biggest partner with 32% in 2009, with Italy (10.2%) and France (8.5%) also key. The major imports are vehicles and machinery, chemicals, metals, agricultural products and textiles.

My view
from...
Switzerland
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If you are a researcher based in Switzerland, in whatever capacity, then we would love to hear from you!

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laurence@mrweb.com

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