Ticks, traffic and terrorism suspects

There are 1,118 museums in Switzerland, and they are becoming more popular. 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 some of the most interesting statistics to appear in the past week’s stories.

Monday

251

The number of cases of the tick-borne early summer meningo-encephalitis (ESME) disease recorded in Switzerland so far this year – the second-highest number since 2000.  

Tuesday

1,118

Switzerland’s 1,118 museums are becoming more popular: 13.3 million visits were recorded in 2018 – a million more than in 2015, when stats were first recorded. 

Wednesday

180 million

The amount of francs that the government earmarked to promote the transfer of heavy-goods transport from road to rail. It also plans to impose higher fees for heavy-polluter trucks and to grant special tariffs for extra-long cargo trains, as well as more roadside checks by police.  

325, 291

The number of people commuting to Switzerland for work each day in the third quarter of 2019, beating the previous record of 316,491 set in 2017. Experts attribute the upward trend in large part to the stable Swiss economy and a stable labour market. 

Thursday

331

The Federal Office of Police banned 331 people with suspected links to terrorism from entering Switzerland during the 2016-2018 period. It also expelled 19 people for terror links over this period.