Swiss Company Registration Service
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Swiss health system
Swiss citizens are universally required to buy health insurance from private insurance companies, which in turn are required to accept every applicant. While the cost of the system is among the highest, the system compares well with other European countries in terms of health outcomes, so patients are largely satisfied with it. In 2012, life expectancy at birth was 80.4 years for men and 84.7 years for women. These are the world's highest life expectancy. However, spending on health is particularly high, with 11.4% of GDP (2010), however in par with Germany and France (11.6%) and other European countries, but far less than in USA (17.6%). From 1990, a steady increase is observed, reflecting the high prices of the services provided. With aging populations and new healthcare technologies, health spending will likely continue to rise.
Swiss religion
Switzerland has no official state religion, though most of the cantons (except Geneva and Neuchâtel) recognize official churches, which are either the Catholic Church or the (Protestant) Swiss Reformed Church. These churches, and in some cantons also the Old Catholic Church and Jewish congregations, are financed by official taxation of adherents.
As of 2012 Christianity is the predominant religion of Switzerland, divided between the Catholic Church (38.2% of the population), the Swiss Reformed Church (26.9%) and other Christian denominations (5.7%). Geneva converted to Protestantism in 1536, just before John Calvin arrived there. Immigration has brought Islam (4.9%) and Eastern Orthodoxy (around 2%) as sizeable minority religions. As of the 2000 census other Christian minority communities include Neo-Pietism (0.44%), Pentecostalism (0.28%, mostly incorporated in the Schweizer Pfingstmission), Methodism (0.13%), the New Apostolic Church (0.45%), Jehovah's Witnesses (0.28%), other Protestant denominations (0.20%), the Old Catholic Church (0.18%), other Christian denominations (0.20%). Non-Christian religions are Hinduism (0.38%), Buddhism (0.29%), Judaism (0.25%) and others (0.11%); 4.3% did not make a statement. 11.1% in 2000 and already 21.4% in 2012 declared themselves as unchurched i.e. not affiliated with any church or other religious body (Agnostic, Atheist, or just not related to any official religion)
The country was historically about evenly balanced between Catholic and Protestant, with a complex patchwork of majorities over most of the country. One canton, Appenzell, was officially divided into Catholic and Protestant sections in 1597. The larger cities and their cantons (Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Zürich and Basel) used to be predominantly Protestant. Central Switzerland, the Valais, the Ticino, Appenzell Innerrhodes, the Jura, and Fribourg are traditionally Catholic. The Swiss Constitution of 1848, under the recent impression of the clashes of Catholic vs. Protestant cantons that culminated in the Sonderbundskrieg, consciously defines a consociational state, allowing the peaceful co-existence of Catholics and Protestants. A 1980 initiative calling for the complete separation of church and state was rejected by 78.9% of the voters. Some traditionally Protestant cantons and cities nowadays have a slight Catholic majority, not because they were growing in members, quite the contrary, but only because since about 1970 a steadily growing minority became not affiliated with any church or other religious body (21.6% in Switzerland, 2012) especially in traditionally Protestant regions, such as Basel-City (42%), canton of Neuchâtel (38%), canton of Geneva (35%), canton of Vaud (26%), or Zürich city (city: >25%; canton: 23%).
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For further queries about investment in Switzerland, please do not hesitate to contact ATAHK at anytime, anywhere by simply calling China hotline at 86-755-82143422, 86-755-82143512, or emailing to anitayao@citilinkia.com