A new large-scale study, released by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) this month, showed some interesting developments, including that “this demographic increase is the most significant recorded since the beginning of the 1960s.”
In terms of the foreign population, this is what the FSO found:
At 2,417.288 people at the end of 2023, foreigners made up 27 percent of Switzerland’s total population.The vast majority have settled in or near Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Basel, and Lugano, with some concentrations of foreigners also found in Valais, Zug, Lucerne, and Neuchâtel.
The canton of Zurich is home to the largest number of international residents: 459,706.
Next are Vaud (284,460), Geneva (218,684), Aargau (198,599), and Bern (190, 384).
These are the largest foreigner groups, according to FSO: Italians (332,700 people), Germans (315,963), Portuguese (253,589), French (157,031), Kosovans (115,302), Spanish (91,393), Turkish (70,279), North Macedonians (69,155), Serbians (58, 970), and Austrians (45,961).
Language the determining factor
It comes as no surprise that people from Germany tend to settle in regions where German is the predomnant language — such as central and northeastern Switzerland, but not necessarily in large cities.
In certain smaller communities, like Beiwil in Solothurn or Trub (Bern), Germans make up more than 63 percent of local populations.
READ ALSO: Why is Switzerland so popular for Germans moving abroad?
Then there are the French.
They too come to live in language-appropriate areas, in the western part of the country.
Cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura, and parts of Valais count, most French citizens among the local population.
Here too, many opt to live in small communities: for instance, over half of local residents of Grandevent in Vaud are French nationals, the same percentage as in Champéry (Valais).
What about English speakers?
Since they are third nations, there are relatively few people from the UK, United States, Canada, Australia, India, and other non EU/EFTA states living permanently in Switzerland.
Of those, Brits form the largest group, as many have settled in the country before Brexit, while the UK was still part of the European Union and British citizens had an easy access to Switzerland.
Right now, just over 40,000 people from the UK reside permanently in Switzerland — twice as many as American citizens.
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