Fun facts about Liechtenstein that I can actually back up

Most lists of Liechtenstein facts copy the same ten items from each other, and a few of them have nothing behind them. I’ve done the opposite. I’ve looked up each fact in the official statistics, the constitution, the princely house’s website or the Historisches Lexikon, and anything I couldn’t verify I’ve either left out or flagged clearly as unconfirmed.

A tiny country with outsized numbers

At 160 km², about 62 square miles, Liechtenstein ranks fourth among Europe’s smallest countries and sixth worldwide, according to the Office of Statistics. The official portal adds that it’s the smallest state in the German-speaking world, a point I pick up in the language of Liechtenstein. But the surprise isn’t the size so much as what fits into it.

By the close of 2024 there were 43,441 people working in Liechtenstein, outnumbering its 41,228 residents. The explanation is that 24,943 of them lived abroad and crossed the border every day. There’s one company for every eight residents, says the official portal, and the Office of Statistics counts about 780 cars per 1,000 people, which it calls a European high. The reasons for all that prosperity are unpacked in why Liechtenstein is so rich, and the label that still follows the money around gets its own page, is Liechtenstein a tax haven?

Another fact that throws visitors is that the capital isn’t the biggest municipality. Schaan has 6,294 residents and Vaduz 6,108. And here’s one for map lovers. Liechtenstein is surrounded only by landlocked countries, Switzerland and Austria, so, like Uzbekistan, it’s doubly landlocked, and those two are the only such cases on Earth. To reach the sea from Vaduz you have to cross at least two borders.

Symbols with odd back stories

The flag has carried a crown since 1937 because, plain blue and red, it was identical to Haiti’s, a clash the Historisches Lexikon places straight after the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The whole tale is on my page about the Liechtenstein flag.

The anthem, ‘Oben am jungen Rhein’, is sung to exactly the same tune as ‘God Save the King’. In the 19th century more than 30 countries used the melody and Switzerland only dropped it in 1961. Liechtenstein has kept it, and at the line cheering the prince people raise a hand. The story of the words is on the Liechtenstein national anthem page.

Then there are the stamps. The country has issued its own since 1 February 1912, even though Switzerland has handled its post since 1921, and the Postage Stamp Museum in Vaduz holds every stamp printed since.

A state that works differently

It has had no army since 12 February 1868, when Prince Johann II disbanded a contingent of 82 men, and the details are on Liechtenstein without an army. There’s no airport either, and the railway through the country is 9 km of track run by Austrian Federal Railways, with three stops. One of them is called Forst Hilti, after the multinational based in Schaan.

The constitution holds a surprise in Article 4. Any of the eleven municipalities can break away if most of its voters say so. And the prince, who must assent to every law, may not hold another nationality, and nor may the next in line. Another oddity is that for over a century the princes never set foot in the place. The first to visit was Alois II, in 1842, and the first to live there was Franz Joseph II, in 1938.

The ones few people mention

Women’s suffrage at national level dates only from 1984, when men approved it in a referendum by 2,370 votes to 2,251. And Switzerland, its closest partner, has given it more than one fright. According to the Historisches Lexikon, in 1968 the Swiss army fired five shells into Malbun by mistake, and its exercises near the border repeatedly set fire to Balzers forest. Those incidents are gathered under Swiss invasions of Liechtenstein.

The fact I don’t believe

The one that circulates most in English is the tale of the 80 soldiers who went to war in 1866 and came home as 81. No official website carries it, and the Historisches Lexikon, which gives the army a long article, doesn’t mention it. What’s documented is a contingent of 82 men who stood guard on an Alpine pass and never saw combat. I find the truth more interesting than the punchline, which is why it isn’t on my list. The same goes for the story that you can hire the whole country for a party, which I checked in renting Liechtenstein and found no source for.