Climate change, aid to Syria and quality of life

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.

69

The percentage of young people who want immediate action to stop climate change, according to a survey. But they shy away from concrete ideas such as giving up flying or eating meat.

1,000

This is roughly the number of young people who have applied for Swiss citizenship since the law changed a year ago to ease naturalisation rules for third-generation immigrants. This number is small, given that some 25,000 young third-generation immigrants (aged 9 to 25) are in theory eligible for a Swiss passport.

3

Three Swiss cities — Zurich, Geneva and Basel — are in the top 10 of a new quality of living survey. The Mercer survey looks at quality of life in 231 global cities.

68 million

The amount in Swiss francs that Bern has pledged in aid for Syria this year. The Swiss contribution was announced at the third EU-UN conference on Syria held in Brussels.

31

The number of small Swiss embassies with minimal levels of staff that should be reviewed, according to the Federal Audit Office. It said that although their work was limited to simply maintaining existing bilateral relations, they cost the state about CHF25 million ($25 million) annually.