Liechtenstein has a population of around 40,000 — roughly the size of a small market town. About a third of the population are foreign nationals, many of them workers from neighbouring Switzerland, Austria, and Germany who commute across the border daily. The principality has more jobs than residents, an unusual situation that speaks to its economic weight relative to its size.
The majority of Liechtensteiners are of Alemannic descent, and the dialect they speak — an Alemannic variant closely related to those of eastern Switzerland and Vorarlberg — bears little resemblance to standard German. The exception is Triesenberg, where the Walser people settled in the 13th century after migrating from the Swiss canton of Valais. The Walser maintained a distinct culture and dialect for centuries; today the Walser Museum in Triesenberg documents this heritage, and the municipality still actively promotes its traditions.
The country is predominantly Roman Catholic, a fact reflected in its public holiday calendar (National Day falls on the Feast of the Assumption) and in the profusion of small chapels and shrines across the mountain villages.
Despite its reputation as a banking centre and tax haven, Liechtenstein is not ostentatiously wealthy in its daily character. The villages are tidy and prosperous but unshowy. The prince's family is genuinely present — the Vaduz Castle silhouette is not decorative, someone actually lives there — and the sense of connection between the ruling family and the population is unusually direct for a modern European state.