Snow dumps and ice-skating injuries

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.

Monday

73

Winter has come! Many Swiss regions were covered in the white stuff, with a high of 73 centimetres of fresh snow recorded in the village of St Antönien, situated at 1,510 metres above sea level, in eastern Switzerland. 

Tuesday

2.6

The unemployment rate in Switzerland averaged 2.6% in 2018, a ten-year low. Just over 118,000 people were registered with regional job centres during 2018 – 17.5% fewer than the previous year. 

Wednesday

15 billion

The Swiss National Bank says it expects to report a loss of about CHF15 billion ($15.3 billion) for 2018, mainly because of a weak performance of foreign currency positions. 

Thursday

3,600

Some 3,600 ice-skaters require medical attention every year in Switzerland, with almost nine out of ten injured people being men. Most accidents involve people falling over, causing bruising, cuts and lacerations, broken bones or concussion. 

Friday

1,400

The amount in francs that taxi drivers in Geneva pay per year for inspections. They were striking last week in protest against unauthorised taxis from other countries who massively undercut them.