On this Swiss roll the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. For Swiss who emigrated to France, see Swiss migration to France.

For the language, see Swiss French. For Germans who immigrated to Switzerland, see German immigration to Switzerland. For the language, see Swiss German. Map of the Swiss Diaspora in the World. The number of Swiss nationals has grown from 1. 7 million in 1815 to 8.

5 million Swiss citizens hold multiple citizenship. Switzerland, ultimately derive from the toponym Schwyz, have been in widespread use to refer to the Old Swiss Confederacy since the 16th century. They are historically amalgamated from the Gallo-Roman population and the Alemanni. Speakers of Low Alemannic in Basel and the Lake Constance area. The Romansh, speakers of the Romansh language, settling in parts of the Grisons, historically of Raetic stock.

Romansh speakers accounted for about 0. 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 Berne and Uri, respectively. This immigration was halted by the Great Depression and WWII. It restarted after the war ended. National Romantic depiction of Swiss population and society.

The Swiss populace historically derives from an amalgamation of Gallic or Gallo-Roman, Alamannic and Rhaetic stock. In early modern Switzerland, the Swiss Confederacy was a pact between independent states within the Holy Roman Empire. Modern Switzerland is atypical in its successful political integration of a multiethnic and multilingual populace, and is often cited as a model for new efforts at creating unification, as in the European Union’s frequent invocation of the Swiss Confederate model. From the 19th century there were conscious attempts to foster a federal “Pan-Swiss” national identity that would replace or alleviate the cantonal patriotisms. Identification with the national symbolism relating to the Old Swiss Confederacy was especially difficult for the cantons which had been joined to the Helvetic Republic in 1798 without any prior membership in the Swiss Confederacy, and which were given the status of Swiss cantons only after the end of the Napoleonic era.

Swiss citizenship is still primarily citizenship in one of the Swiss cantons, and the naturalization of foreign citizens is the privilege of the cantons. No Swiss passports were issued prior to 1915, more than 60 years after the establishment of the modern Swiss Confederation. As Swiss citizenship is entirely based on jus sanguinis, the place of origin rather than the place of birth is recorded in identity documents. While the cantons are responsible for naturalization, federal Swiss nationality law regulates minimal requirements necessary for naturalization. In 2003, 35,424 residents were naturalized, a number exceeding net population growth. The genetic composition of the Swiss population is similar to that of Central Europe in general.

Switzerland is on one hand at the crossroads of several prehistoric migrations, while on the other hand the Alps acted as a refuge in some cases. Wikiquote has quotations related to Swiss people. Collectively the 7 million citizens plus the estimated figure of 1. 5 million non-citizens abroad with self-reported Swiss ancestry. The term is sometimes extended to include the descendants of Swiss emigrant, see e.