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 or people of self-identified Swiss ancestry.
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. 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.
Switzerland is home to a people of a variety of origins, itself being a multi-racial and multi-cultural country. The Swiss are not a single ethnic group, Rather, Switzerland is a confederacy (Eidgenossenschaft) or Willensnation ("nation of will", "nation by choice", that is, a consociational state), a term coined in contrast to "nation" in the conventional linguistic or ethnic sense.
The demonym Swiss (formerly in English also called Switzer) and the name of Switzerland ultimately derive from the toponym Schwyz. Both have been widely used to refer to the Old Swiss Confederacy since the 16th century.
The ethno-linguistic composition of the territories of modern Switzerland includes the following components:
The German Swiss (Deutschschweizer) are mostly speakers of different varieties of Alemannic German. They are historically amalgamated from the Gallo-Roman population, consisting mostly of romanized Helvetii, Raurici, Roman immigrants and the Alemanni. Closely related German-speaking peoples are the Alsatians, the Swabians and the Vorarlbergians. German speakers (including German and Austrian immigrants) accounted for 62.3% of the population as of 2020.
Speakers of High Alemannic, roughly divided into an Eastern (Zürich, Lake Lucerne, Eastern Switzerland) and a Western (Bernese, Solothurn, Western Aargau, Basel-Land and Fricktal) subgroup, with most dialects of Aargau and Lucerne transitional between the groups.
Speakers of Low Alemannic in Basel and the Lake Constance area.
Speakers of Highest Alemannic in the Bernese Oberland, Upper Valais and the Walser settlements in Central Switzerland, Grisons and Ticino.
The French-speaking Swiss (Romands), traditionally speaking Franco-Provençal dialects (as well as the Franc-Comtois dialect of the Oïl languages in parts of Jura), today largely assimilated to the standard French language (Swiss French), amalgamated from the Gallo-Roman population and Burgundians (the historical Upper Burgundy). Romands are considered a distinct Romance people. They are closely related to the French populations of Franche-Comté and Rhône-Alpes. They are referred to as Welsche (singular Welsche f./Welscher m.) in (Swiss) German. French speakers (including French immigrants) accounted for 22.8% of population as of 2020.
The Italian-speaking Swiss (Svizzeri italiani, see also Swiss Italian), traditionally speakers of Lombard language (Ticinese varieties, as well as the dialects of the Bregaglia, Poschiavo and Mesolcina valleys in Grisons) today partly assimilated to the standard Italian language, amalgamated from Raetians and Lombards. They are closely related to the population of Northern Italy, especially Lombards. Italian speakers (including Italian immigrants) accounted for 8% of population as of 2020.
The Romansh, speakers of the Romansh language, settling in parts of the Grisons, historically of Raetic stock. Romansh speakers accounted for about 0.5% of population as of 2020.
The core Eight Cantons of the Swiss Confederacy were entirely Alemannic-speaking, and German speakers remain the majority. However, from as early as the 15th century, parts of French-speaking Vaud and Italian-speaking Ticino were acquired as subject territories by Bern and Uri, respectively. The Swiss Romandie was formed by the accession of French-speaking Geneva and Neuchâtel and the partly francophone Valais and Bernese Jura (formerly part of the Prince-Bishopric of Basel) to the Restored Swiss Confederacy in 1815.
Romansh was formerly considered a group of Italian dialects, but Switzerland declared Romansh a national language in 1938 in reaction to the fascist Italian irredentism at the time.
Switzerland experienced significant immigration from Italy in the very late 19th and early 20th century, such that in 1910 that accounted for some 10% of the Swiss population. This immigration was halted by the Great Depression and WWII. It restarted after the war ended. As elsewhere in Western Europe, immigration to Switzerland has increased dramatically since the 1960s, so that a large proportion of the resident population of Switzerland are now not descended or only partially descended from the core ethno-linguistic groups listed above.
As of 2011, 37% of total resident population of Switzerland had immigrant background.
As of 2016, the most widely used foreign languages were English, Portuguese, Albanian, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish, all named as a "main language" by more than 2% of total population (respondents could name more than one "main language").
Cultural history and national identity