- Switzerland is one of the only two countries to have a square flag – the Vatican has the only other square flag in the world. The Swiss flag is a red square with a white cross in the centre.
- Switzerland is prepared for a nuclear war, if there ever was one – there are enough nuclear fallout shelters to accommodate its entire human population, due to laws that require everybody to have access to a shelter in their building or nearby. The Swiss military keeps fully stocked artillery bunkers, disguised as quaint country homes, in the middle of populated villages.
- Switzerland's main access points are wired to blow in case of an attack – one of the country's defense strategies is to demolish every main road, bridge and railway access into Switzerland in case of a foreign invasion, with at least 3,000 locations around the country prepared to blow at a moment’s notice.
- Coffee in Zurich is the most expensive in the world – costing an average CHF3.65 (USD 3.65) in the Coffee Price Index 2016, with Copenhagen, Basel, Bern and Geneva rounding out the top five respectively. Switzerland was also the origin of instant coffee when the Nestlé Company, started by Swiss businessman Henri Nestlé in 1867, created Nescafe in 1938.
- In Switzerland citizens can challenge any law passed by Parliament – provided they can gather 50,000 signatures against the law within 100 days. If succesful, a national vote is held and voters decide by a simple majority whether to accept or reject the law.
- Switzerland boasts some of the world's most famous inventions – they created Velcro, cellophane, the Swiss Army Knife, absinthe, the potato peeler, Helvetica font, LSD, muesli, edible chocolate gold and milk chocolate to name a few. They were also pioneers in introducing bobsleigh, tobogganing and luge as a competitive sport to the world. Swiss scientists are also leading research in using LSD to treat mental illness and pain. Switzerland continues to lead the world in innovation, topping the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) ranking in 2017 for the seventh year in a row, ahead of the US (4th) and UK (5th).
- Swiss men have the longest life expectancy in the world – in 2015 life expectancy at birth was 81.3 years for Swiss men and 85.3 years for Swiss women, according to World Health Organization (WHO). This puts Switzerland second (after Japan) for the average longest life expectancy. The population is also ageing; in 2015, almost one-fifth of the population was 65.
- Swiss law prohibits owning 'soclal' pets unless you have two of them – this makes it illegal in Switzerland to keep just one guinea pig, mouse, ferret, fish, canary, pig or other social creature. With the world's most stringent animal welfare laws, Switzerland judges isolation for such animals as abuse. This has sparked services such as a lawyer who defends animals and a pet-renting service in case one of a pair dies and the owner wants to avoid a pet-buying cycle to abide by the pairing law.
- There are Swiss taxes for owning a dog – annual taxes are determined by the dog's size and weight. Dog owners are also required to take a training course to learn how to properly care for their pets.
- Switzerland is one of the world's best places to be born, live and be happy – according to consistently high rankings in global reports. Switzerland was ranked the world's happiest country in 2015, and came second in 2016 (after Denmark) out of 156 countries, while Zurich was named the second best city to live in Mercer's Quality of Living Report 2016 (after Vienna), and tied with Bern and Helsinki as the second best city for personal safesty, far above London (72) or the US (where no city ranked in the top 50). According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) latest Where to be Born Index (2013), Switzerland was the best country to be born.
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