Switzerland

Switzerland (the Swiss Confederation) is a landlocked state at the meeting point of Central, Western and Southern Europe, bordering Germany, France, Austria, Liechtenstein and Italy. Most of its 9 million people live on the Swiss Plateau, between the Alps and the Jura Mountains, in cities such as Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern. It is a federal republic of 26 cantons, with Bern as the federal city.

The 2026 edition of the World Happiness Report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford with Gallup and the UN SDSN, ranks Switzerland No. 10, with a life evaluation score of 7.018. In the previous edition it was No. 13 with 6.935.

The country has four main language regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Its identity rests on shared history and values such as federalism and direct democracy, and Wikipedia notes it is described as a Willensnation, a "nation of volition". It grew out of the Old Swiss Confederacy of the late Middle Ages.

Sources of this text: Wikipedia · Wellbeing Research Centre Oxford / Gallup / UN SDSN