Switzerland: an ageing, happy country of solo households The 2022–2023 Statistical Yearbook provides a snapshot of Switzerland. A country of strong demographic growth, solely due to immigration. The people consider themselves happy. They are also highly mobile: everyone has a car. 85 years old An ageing country Switzerland is an ageing country, and the population is no longer self-sustaining, as there are more deaths than births. At the start of the twentieth century, Switzerland averaged 3.7 births per woman, compared to 1.39 today. A rate of 2.1 births per woman is needed to sustain the population. The country’s growth is thus attributable to its foreign nationals. The population of Switzerland grew from 4.717 million in 1950 to 7.204 million in 2000. It passed the eight million mark in 2020, rising to nine million in 2023: a European growth record! The age pyramid is inexorably inverting. Between 1900 and 2022, the proportion of young people aged under 20 halved, from 40.7% to 19.9%. Over the same period, the proportion of the population over the age of 64 rose from 5.8% to 19.2%. The share of people aged 80 and over actually increased multiple times over, rising from 0.5% to 5.5%. In 2022, Switzerland had 1,948 centenarians, three-quarters of whom were women. And their number keeps growing. One third of girls born in 2022 should reach the age of 100. Life expectancy at birth has doubled since the end of the nineteenth century. A baby girl born in 1950 had a life expectancy of 70 years, compared to 85 years today. Of course, ageing is not good for the health, and half of the population suffers from long-term health issues from the age of 75. Nonetheless, Switzerland’s senior citizens seem happy for the most part. In 2021, almost two persons in five – from the age of 16 – said they were very satisfied with their life. And this feeling of wellbeing increases with age (not to mention level of education and income). However, this age imbalance poses massive challenges to the social insurance system, as the proportion of people paying contributions is in decline. There will also, at least in relative terms, be fewer health professionals to ensure that these cohorts of elderly people receive adequate healthcare. 20% A country of single-person households The richer a country is, the more people live alone. Wealthy Switzerland is no exception. Over one third of Switzerland’s one million households comprise one person. In other words, almost 20% of the permanent resident population live alone. Households without children have more than doubled since 1970. At the same time, single-person households have tripled. That said, even if family households with children represent less than a third of the total, they still account for 41% of the population. As for single-parent households, they account for 16% of all family households. Do people like living alone? It seems that those who live with a partner, with or without children, are a lot more content with life than those who live alone or as a single parent. In 2010, it was estimated that one marriage in two risked ending in divorce. Going by current forecasts, that statistic is now two marriages in five. Finally, more women than men are subjected to violence. In 2022, the police recorded a total of 42 homicides, 25 of which took place within the home; 18 of these 25 casualties were female. Swiss Review / March 2024 / No.2 18 Switzerland in figures
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