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Concept
Swiss people
Summary
The Swiss people (die Schweizer, les Suisses, gli Svizzeri, 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.
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.
Linguistic geography of Switzerland
The ethno-linguistic composition of the territories of modern Switzerland includes the following components:
The Swiss Germans (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.
Official source
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