Unknown facts about Switzerland

You have always viewed Switzerland as land of beautiful valleys and chocolates. But do you know following facts. It will blow your mind 

• Although it's a very wealthy nation, Switzerland is a country of renters. Home ownership in Switzerland is only about 30%. It's not that Swiss people don't want to own their own homes, but they aren't as willing as people in other countries to overextend themselves financially to do so. Renting is the norm and people seem to be quite happy with that generally.
• Only about 30%* or so of Swiss people go to university. Most people do a form of apprenticeship instead, to learn a specific profession. This is not just for the usual things you might associate with apprenticeship like plumbing or carpentry and so on. Even bankers usually go through a banking apprenticeship rather than a university. Universities are academic institutions, not job training grounds.
• In Switzerland, direct democracy is the norm. All kinds of single issues are put up to a referendum. People can vote directly on things ranging from "should we dig a tunnel through this mountain (and fund it)" to "do we continue to fund free drug rehabilitation programs" (both were voted yes) or "do we join the EU" (that has been voted down a couple of times I think.) Constitutional issues must be put up for referendum. Otherwise, to bring something up for referendum you just need to gather enough signatures supporting it. Referendums are both on the national and cantonal (state) level. For instance in the canton of Zürich, all road projects costing over a certain amount have to be put up for referendum. 
• Every household in Switzerland has a designated bomb shelter that they need to know about in order to take cover in case of attack. Sometimes the shelter is under the house itself, but more often it's somewhere in the neighborhood. Ours was an underground car park about 3 minutes away from our house.
• Switzerland has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world. This is because the Swiss Army is a people's militia rather than a standing army. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun... ) However, the crime rate in general and gun crime rates are very low.