Recently published data from Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO) rank Switzerland’s cities on various aspects related to quality of life, reported RTS.

Quality of life depends on what someone finds important. So the survey does not attempt to come up with a single rating. Instead it ranks Switzerland’s cities across a number of categories.
The first is work, or more specifically average pay. On this measure Zurich comes out top. With unemployment at 2% and average pay of CHF 70,394 the city is ahead of Basel (66,923), Lugano (62,339), Geneva (60,988), Luzern (59,827), Winterthur (57,253), Bern (57,064), Lausanne (54,396), and St. Gallen (53,351).
In terms of housing, Geneva comes bottom. The city is crowded. 17% of accommodation in the city is overcrowded. In Luzern less than 4% is. And while Zurich has the highest rent (Geneva is second), the percentage of housing that is overcrowded there is less than 7%. Average rent in Zurich comes out at CHF 20.5 per square metre per month – renting a small two square metre toilet in the city would cost nearly CHF 500 a year to rent.
For crime, Basel ranks worst with nearly 15 crimes per 1,000 residents during 2022. Next is Lausanne (12 per 1,000), followed by Zurich (11), Geneva (9), Winterthur (8), St. Gallen (8), Bern (7), Luzern (7) and Lugano (7).
On culture, Bern comes out top with nearly 8, 13 and 10 cinemas, museums and theatres per 100,000 residents. With 17 per 100,000, Lugano has the highest density of museums, the one measure where Bern is not the leader.
More on this:
RTS article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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