Basel has been selected as the host city for the 2025 Eurovision song contest, announced the organisation on Friday. The promotional video for next year’s event is below. The next event will take place in mid-May next year. It is hoped the event will boost tourism in the city. The decision was announced 10am. Twenty […]
Number of Swiss abroad continues to rise
At the end of 2023, there were 813,400 Swiss citizens living outside Switzerland, more than 11% of the total – 6.5 million citizens lived in Switzerland in 2022. The number of Swiss abroad rose by 13,400 or 1.7% during 2023. Most of the 813,400 lived in Europe (64%), with 26% of total citizens abroad living […]
Work, housing, crime, culture – Switzerland’s best and worst cities
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 […]
Swiss municipalities with most private swimming pools
This week RTS published a map showing which Swiss municipalities have the highest numbers of private swimming pools. Swimming pool champions are clustered mainly in Italian- and French-speaking Switzerland. Three of the top ten municipalities are in Ticino, five in Geneva and two in Vaud. Only the commune of Binningen in Basel Landschaft in German-speaking […]
WWF hits out at barbecue meat discounts
Meat for barbecues is often heavily discounted while discounts on plants-based products are relatively rare, according to a study by WWF Switzerland, reported RTS. Animal products benefitted from more frequent and higher discounts, said WWF. Out of 150 products discounted in Switzerland between the end of April and mid-May 2023, 95% were animal products, which […]
New low cost passes for under 25s on Swiss trains
On 28 March 2023, SwissPass launched three new train passes for those under 25. The first is the “AG Night Pass”. This costs CHF 99 a year and allows the holder to make unlimited journeys on the Swiss Rail network after 7 pm. It is also valid on trains before 7 am at the weekends. […]
Switzerland’s high online purchase return rate
In Switzerland, 15.6% of purchases are made online, slightly above the European average of 15.5%, according to a survey by the delivery company DPD. However, when it comes to returning items Swiss e-shoppers are far above the European average. The most common items bought online in Switzerland are books, clothing and shoes. 49% of books, […]
The concept of a 4-day week makes headway in Switzerland
A 4-day work week on 100% pay has become a reality at some small businesses in Switzerland, reports RTS. Andreas Ott, the owner of a small graphic design studio in the canton of Aargau told the SonntagsZeitung that his clients reported no issues with staff taking Fridays off. Ott introduced the concept several years ago […]
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 […]
Hiking and biking gain popularity in Switzerland
In 2019, residents of Switzerland spent 200 million hours hiking and 2.4 millions went on an average of 15 bike rides, according to recently published data from Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (FEDRO). In 2019, around 57% of residents aged over 15 went hiking, a figure 20 percentage points higher than in 2007. The steepest rise […]
