Once a year it is possible to (easily) change your health insurance in Switzerland. To do so you must cancel your existing policy by 30 November, a date fast approaching. Deadline for annual changes is 30 NovemberInsurers must tell their members what next year’s premiums will be by 31 October. Members then have until 30 […]
People working less in Switzerland
The amount of time spent working in Switzerland has been steadily declining since 2010, according to recent statistics from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). In 2020, an employed person worked an average of 1,495 hours a year in Switzerland, 7.2% or 13.8 days less than in 2010. To reveal the sharp drop in work hours […]
Levelling up – the cantons giving and taking in 2022
In 2022, under the national financial equalisation mechanism, 6 cantons will transfer some of their tax revenue to Switzerland’s 20 other cantons. Switzerland’s cantons have very different tax bases, costs and tax rates. Taxes in Switzerland are comprised of federal taxes, cantonal taxes and municipal taxes. Federal taxes are the same across all of Switzerland. […]
Gay marriage possible in Switzerland from July 2022
From 1 July 2022, same sex couples will be able to marry or convert their registered partnerships into marriage, announced the Swiss government this week. The announcement on 17 November 2021 follows a popular vote on the subject on 26 September 2021 when 64.1% voted in favour same sex marriage. The new law will be […]
Lights out – Geneva to cut lights to save electricity
This week, the government of the canton of Geneva changed a law to require non residential buildings, with some exceptions, to switch off their lights at night between 1am and 6am. Thursday’s parliamentary vote in favour of the move is expected to cut the canton’s electricity consumption by at least 1%. During parts of winter, […]
Football: Switzerland makes it through to 2022 World Cup
On 15 November 2021, Switzerland won 4-0 against Bulgaria in Luzern, making Switzerland the winning team in its group, reported Le Matin. The win on Monday means Switzerland has a place in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The quadrennial football match will see 32 national teams compete between 21 November and 18 December 2022. […]
Trains running again between Lausanne and Geneva after 3-day outage
On Tuesday, trains services between Geneva and Lausanne were halted after the ground near part of the rail network collapsed in Tolochenaz near Morges. Trains started operating between the two cities early on Friday morning after a 3-day hiatus. From 5 am on Friday trains started running but were required to slow to 20 km/h […]
After 95 years, Migros set to sell alcohol
Last weekend the management of one of Switzerland’s two largest supermarkets voted in favour of selling alcohol in its stores, reported the company. Company founder Gottlieb Duttweiler, who passed away in 1962, did not want the business to sell alcohol, something that was prevented by the cooperative’s constitution. Duttweiler did not want to fuel alcohol […]
Switzerland’s fastest and slowest growth cantons
This week, Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office published the latest cantonal GDP figures. Switzerland’s overall GDP growth in 2019 was 1.2%. However there were wide cantonal differences. The six fastest growing cantons in 2019 were Obwalden (+3.5%), Glarus (+3.2%), Zug (+2.7%), Basel-City (+2.6%), Luzern (+2.6%) and Valais (+2.5%). At the other end of the spectrum were […]
No explosion in side effects from Covid vaccines in Switzerland
Since vaccinations against Covid-19 began late last year in Switzerland 11.1 million shots have been administered to 5.8 million people. Over this period, 9,834 people have reported reactions coinciding with vaccination, of which 3,396 were considered serious, a ratio of around 1 serious report per 1,700 people. Swissmedic, Switzerland’s drug approval and monitoring agency, said […]
