This week, a group of politicians from the Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP) announced a new popular initiative aimed at asylum seekers, according to the newspaper 20 Minutes. The initiative aims to put in place a system of on-the-spot asylum assistance where asylum seekers are housed in secure zones in their home country or nearby. Switzerland […]
Switzerland faces looming shortage of workers
As more baby-boomers – born from 1946 to 1964 – retire, Switzerland will faces a shortage of workers, according to Credit Suisse, a bank. Economists at the bank estimate that 1.1 million people in Switzerland will retire over the next 10 years, a figure which includes nearly 800,000 people currently working. By 2021, there will […]
How moving within Switzerland can stop you getting permanent residency
A recent case in the canton of Bern reveals the risks of moving to a municipality where they speak a different language. A Brazilian women married to a Swiss national found this out the hard way, according to the newspaper 20 Minutes. After moving from a French-speaking municipality in the Canton of Neuchâtel to the […]
Vevey’s Fête des vignerons set to make large loss
With the celebration over, attention has shifted to the cost of the Fête des vignerons, Vevey’s once-in-25-year winegrowers festival. As the bills come in it looks like the festival will make a loss of CHF 16 million, according to the François Margot, who was interviewed by the newspaper 24 heures. Fête des Vignerons: “Le manque […]
Nearly 8% of Switzerland’s population has suicidal thoughts
Suicide prevention is a global challenge. Globally, around 800,000 people take their lives every year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). In 2016, not counting assisted suicides, around 1,000 people in Switzerland took their own lives, a rate of 12 per 100,000, a rate comparable to the average across Europe. To understand suicide better, […]
Swiss nationality stripped from a dual national for the first time
For the first time, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) has stripped a dual national of their Swiss nationality, according to a government press release. The man, who has been sentenced to several years in prison, was convicted of creating propaganda and recruiting fighters for a banned islamic terrorist organisation. Article 42 of the Federal […]
The remarkable rise of Switzerland’s GDP per capita
In 1998, GDP per person in Switzerland was CHF 59,693. Recently published statistics put the figure at CHF 80,986 in 2018, a rise of 36%. When Swiss GDP per capita is expressed in globally comparable US dollar terms its rise is even greater. In US dollar terms Swiss GDP per capita grew from US$ 41,497 […]
Housing vacancies rise in 20 Swiss cantons
Recent figures show an annual 4.2% rise in the number of vacant homes in Switzerland, extending a trend that started 10 years ago, according to the Federal Statistical Office. At the start of June 2019, there were 75,323 vacant homes, representing 1.66% of Switzerland’s total stock of homes. However, high vacancy rates in some regions […]
Switzerland’s regional exercise differences
More people in Switzerland are exercising for 2.5 hours a week, a level recommended by Swiss sports organisations. In 2002, 63% of the population across all of Switzerland was getting this amount of exercise. In 2017, 76% of the population spent this much time exercising, according to a study by the Federal Statistical Office that […]
Banks move to cool investment property market in Switzerland
Swiss banks have agreed to tighten lending conditions for investment properties following concerns by the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), a self-regulatory body. The SBA, which represents most of Switzerland’s banks, has issued new lending guidelines requiring lending deposits of at least 25% of the assessed value of the property for residential investment properties. In addition, […]
