By the numbers: A Swiss national language marks a milestone

A street sign displays the name of the village of Bergün in canton Graubünden in both German (top) and Romansh (bottom). Keystone

Almost every article published by swissinfo.ch contains a percentage, an age, an amount of money or some other figure. Here’s a round-up of the most interesting statistics to appear in the past week’s stories.

Sunday

20,400,000

The amount of Swiss funding, in francs, received by British aid organisation Oxfam since 2013. The British government recently withdrew its support of the charity following allegations of sexual misconduct by aid workers during the humanitarian crisis in Haiti in 2011.

Monday

36

The age at which Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer officially became the oldest man to achieve an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) No. 1 ranking. It’s the fourth time in his career that Federer has snagged the top spot. 

Monday

80

The number of years ago that Romansh became the fourth Swiss national language, after 92% of Swiss voters approved the designation. On the anniversary of that vote, Switzerland’s Romansh lobby called to broaden the official territory of the language.

Tuesday

8,600,000,000

The total sales in francs generated from online shoppers in Switzerland in 2017, according to an analysis by the Association of Swiss Mail Order Companies, the market research company GfK and Swiss Post. That figure represents a 10% increase on last year – a trend experts say is attributable to the appeal of being able to compare prices more easily online than in stores. 

Tuesday

66

The percentage of the Swiss economy’s carbon footprint that is attributable to greenhouse gas emissions produced abroad, according to a pioneering analysis by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Switzerland’s total carbon emissions, calculated in terms of its carbon footprint, was 116 million tonnes in 2015. Of these, 76 million tonnes were produced abroad.

Friday

10 million

The amount in Swiss francs donated to open a breastfeeding research centre at the University of Zurich, which founders say will be the first of its kind in the world. The centre will have a dedicated professor and research budget and is expected to start work at the beginning of the 2018 winter semester. Although it’s being funded by a foundation whose founders own Switzerland-based breast pump manufacturer Medela, the University of Zurich has stressed that the donating foundation would have no influence on the choice of professor or topics to be researched.