Swiss Health System Overview
Health System Rankings
Health System Outcomes
Health System Coverage
Health System Costs for Consumers
Health System Expenditures
Swiss COVID-19 National Policy
Population, Midyear 2022: 8,740,472
Population Density (Number of Persons per Square Kilometer): 218.56
Life Expectancy at Birth, 2022: 84.25
Projected Population, Midyear 2030: 9,143,698
Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2022: 19.31%
Projected Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2030: 23.04%
Projected Percentage of Total Population Aged 65 and Older, Midyear 2050: 29.26%
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2023). Data Portal, custom data acquired via website. United Nations: New York. Accessed 12 May 2023.
Annual Population Growth Rate 2000-2018: 1.0%
Projected Annual Population Growth Rate 2018-2030: 0.6%
Proportion of Urban Population, 2018: 74%
Annual Growth Rate of Urban Population 2000-2018: 1.0%
Projected Annual Growth Rate of Urban Population 2018-2030: 0.8%
Source: UNICEF (2019). The State of the World’s Children 2019. Children, Food and Nutrition: Growing well in a changing world. UNICEF, New York.
“Switzerland has four national languages which represent the four principle language communities: 63.5% of the population speak German; 22.5% speak French; 8.1% speak Italian; and 0.5% speak Romansh (a Rhaeto-Roman dialect) (FSO, 2015d). About 38% of the population are Roman Catholic, 27% Protestant, and 21% do not belong to a religious community (FSO, 2015d). The total population in Switzerland was 8.1 million in 2013. This meant a rise in population by almost 30% since 1980 and annual population growth rates were around 1% between 2010 and 2013.
“About 27% of the population were born abroad, making Switzerland the country with the second highest proportion of foreign-born inhabitants in Europe (after Luxembourg) (OECD, 2015a). Immigration is dominated by those from other OECD countries (between 65% and 85%) and is characterized by a high proportion of persons with tertiary education (Dumont & Lemaître, 2005). Switzerland’s status of net beneficiary of highly skilled migrants reflects the historic need for qualified personnel in many sectors in Switzerland, amongst others in the health care sector.
“In 2008, Swiss voters agreed to join the Schengen Area but in February 2014 a diplomatic spat with Europe was triggered when Swiss voters supported a referendum limiting the freedom of movement of foreign citizens to Switzerland. Despite naturalization being a lengthy and complex process and the growing domestic resistance to the size of the immigrant workforce, these factors are likely to remain in tension, politically, with the economy’s need for highly skilled personnel across sectors and the continued appeal of Switzerland’s high standard of living.
“As in many other European countries, the Swiss population is ageing. The share of the population aged 65 and above was 17.7% in 2013, a rise of almost 4 percentage points since 1980. In the same period the share of those aged 0–14 years fell by roughly 5 percentage points to 14.8% in 2013 (see Table 1.1).
“An increasing share of the Swiss population lives in urban areas (73.8% in 2013). More than a third of the population lives in the five largest Swiss agglomerations and population density differs considerably between different cantons and regions (OECD/WHO, 2011). For decades the fertility rate has been about 1.5 children per woman.”
Source: De Pietro C, Camenzind P, Sturny I, Crivelli L, Edwards-Garavoglia S, Spranger A, Wittenbecher F, Quentin W. Switzerland: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2015; 17(4):1–288.
“Switzerland, officially known as the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic made up of 26 cantons. It lies in central Europe and is bordered by France to the west and northwest, Germany to the north, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east and Italy to the south. It covers an area of 41,285 km2. Major cities include Bern (the capital), Zurich, Basel, Lausanne and Geneva. The country is dominated by the Jura Mountains in the northwest and the Alps in the south central part, which together occupy about 70% of the country’s area. The Rhine and Rhône rivers both rise in Switzerland, and there are many lakes, including Lake Geneva and Lake Constance. The majority of the population lives in the Swiss Plateau, a narrow, hilly region between the two mountain ranges. Switzerland has a temperate climate with conditions that vary with relief and altitude (Fig. 1.1).”
Source: De Pietro C, Camenzind P, Sturny I, Crivelli L, Edwards-Garavoglia S, Spranger A, Wittenbecher F, Quentin W. Switzerland: Health system review. Health Systems in Transition, 2015; 17(4):1–288.
World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems in the US and sixteen other nations.
Page last updated May 23, 2023 by Doug McVay, Editor.
