Switzerland is not a member state of the European Union (EU). It is associated with the Union through a series of bilateral treaties in which Switzerland has adopted various provisions of European Union law in order to participate in the Union's single market, without joining as a member state. All but one (the microstate Liechtenstein) of Switzerland's neighbouring countries are EU member states. Comparison {| class="wikitable" ! style="width:10%;" | ! style="width:45%;" | ! style="width:45%;" | |- |Population |447,206,135 | (2019 estimate) |- |Area | |41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi) |- |Population Density |115/km2 (300/sq mi) |207/km2 (536.1/sq mi) |- |Capital |Brussels (de facto) |None , Bern |- |Global cities |Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Frankfurt, Madrid, Brussels, Warsaw, Stockholm, Vienna, Dublin, Luxembourg, Munich, Lisbon, Prague |Zürich |- |Government|Supranational parliamentary democracy based on the European treaties |Federal semi-direct democracy under a multi-party assembly-independent directorial republic |- |First Leader|High Authority President Jean Monnet |Jonas Furrer |- |Current Leader|Charles Michel Ursula von der Leyen Roberta Metsola |Ignazio Cassis Alain Berset Walter Thurnherr |- |Official languages|24 official languages, of which 3 considered "procedural" (English, French and German) |German, French, Italian, Romansh |- |Main Religions|72% Christianity (48% Roman Catholicism, 12% Protestantism, 8% Eastern Orthodoxy, 4% Other Christianity), 23% non-Religious, 3% Other, 2% Islam |65.5% Christianity (35.8% Roman Catholic, 23.8% Swiss Reformed, 5.9% Other Christian), 26.3% No religion, 5.3% Islam, 1.6% Others, 1.3% Unknown |- |Ethnic groups|Germans (ca. 83 million), French (ca. 67 million), Italians (ca. 60 million), Spanish (ca. 47 million), Poles (ca. 46 million), Romanians (ca. 16 million), Dutch (ca. 13 million), Greeks (ca. 11 million), Portuguese (ca. 11 million), and others | |- |GDP (nominal)|$16.477 trillion, $31,801 per capita |$584 billion, $67,557 per capita |} Trade The European Union is Switzerland's largest trading partner, and Switzerland is the EU's fourth largest trading partner, after the United Kingdom, U.S. and China. Export of goods from Switzerland accounts for 5.2% of the EU's imports; mainly chemicals, medicinal products, machinery, instruments and time pieces. In terms of services, the EU's exports to Switzerland amounted to €67.0 billion in 2008 while imports from Switzerland stood at €47.2 billion. Treaties Switzerland signed a free-trade agreement with the then European Economic Community in 1972, which entered into force in 1973. Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and took part in negotiating the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement with the European Union. It signed the agreement on