There’s nothing the Swiss love more that compiling and tabulating statistics, especially when they are about Switzerland. Barely a month goes by without some new report about road deaths, organic food consumption, or numbers of foreigners; last week it was the turn of disposable income, when Credit Suisse published its latest look at which Swiss cantons are the cheapest and priciest to live in. And the winner was…
Source: Credit Suisse, Geostat
Uri. If you’re reading this outside Switzerland, you may never have heard of Canton Uri, even though it was one of the three original cantons that founded the country back in 1291. That was perhaps its high point, other than being the home of the most famous Swiss man ever, William Tell. It doesn’t have any big name attractions, so most visitors just pass through on their way over or under the Gotthard Pass. And it doesn’t take long to pass through – Uri is only 1076 km2 – but while we do that, here are some other Uri stats. Population: 35,335, with 9.4% foreigners; Languages: German (93.5% of the population), Serbo-Croatian (1.9%), Italian (1.3%); Unemployment rate: 1.4%.
None of that counted in the Credit Suisse survey, which looked at living costs in Switzerland, including rent, taxes, social and health insurances. All of those vary from canton to canton, even income tax; in Switzerland that is determined by where you live, not where you work, and communities can have hugely differing rates of tax. Health insurance is another fixed cost that is priced according to place of residence, even if the cover is the same. Tax cuts and low insurance helped Uri jump from 11th place last time straight to the top. The five cheapest places to live (in terms of lowest combined fixed costs) are:
- Uri
- Glarus
- Appenzell Innerrhoden
- Obwalden
- Thurgau
Which is all very well if you want to live surrounded by fields of cows or apple trees; too bad if you actually want something more exciting than watching cheese mature. For that you have to go somewhere more expensive. City life doesn’t come cheap in Switzerland; all the bottom places were taken by more urbanised areas, with Geneva by far the priciest place in the country, followed by Basel-Stadt, Vaud, Basel-Land and Zurich. My home, Bern, scraped in at number 20 (out of 26), just about at the national average. Funnily enough, all those places are the ones with the highest percentage of foreigners living there. Some might say that it is the foreigners who are pushing up costs, particularly in housing; others clearly have a brain and realise that foreigners just choose the more interesting places to live.
The whole report (which you can read here), includes some fascinatingly detailed data. Who knew, for example, that Jura and Neuchâtel have the highest tax burden but lowest housing costs? Or that Graubünden is the most expensive place to own a car? Or even that health insurance is half the price in Appenzell Innerrhoden compared to Geneva, for the same cover! Geneva loses again on rents, the highest in Switzerland.
Source: Credit Suisse
Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was that, overall, tax is less of a drain on household income than insurances or housing costs. Anyone reading this in Britain or Germany will find it hard to believe that tax only accounts for 11.7% of Swiss income. And that’s a national average figure. West is worst when it comes to tax, as this map shows. No wonder stars like Roger Federer and Tina Turner live in the dark blue areas.
Even after digesting all that, I don’t think I’ll be moving to Uri in a hurry. I might have to pay more to live in Bern but it’s worth every franc. There’s nowhere else in Switzerland I’d rather be.
9 Comments on "Where’s the cheapest place to live in Switzerland?"
“Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was that, overall, tax is less of a drain on household income than insurances or housing costs. Anyone reading this in Britain or Germany will find it hard to believe that tax only accounts for 11.7% of Swiss income.”
That is what makes Switzerland a very fair place to live, essentially its a “user pays system” & its all means tested, the Swiss also value things like Education, Transport & Health which are all government regulated and funded, the transport system is run by non profit organisations for instance.
Income tax is high in Britain because it does not have a “user pays system” its a miss conception that health care is free, its far from it, its also easy for people to abuse the system, benefit cheats etc……..give me the Swiss System any day!
I agree to a certain extent, except for health insurance here in Switzerland. Not only are premiums not linked to income but vary wildly based on place of residence, so that it can be grossly unfair. It is sometimes means-tested, but in half of the health insurance areas, there is no help for people on low incomes. Eg, everyone in Lausanne has to pay the full premium, 2.5 times the rate for the same policy in Obwalden for those on lower incomes. Why should the less well-off in Vaud suffer extortionate premiums while the rich in places like Appenzell pay, in terms of percentage of their income, almost nothing? As the report points out: “This means that on average, less financially strong households in high-cost premium regions bear a high proportion of the health insurance premiums than similar households in parts of Switzerland where healthcare costs are lower.”
At least in Britain the NHS is paid for by taxes & national insurance which are the same wherever you live and are based on income. No wonder Switzerland has the highest per capita health costs in the world after the US, and it’s a serious political problem with spiralling premiums and people dropping out of the system. But the pharma & insurance companies have so much political power that no-one will stand up to them, least of all Mr Burkhalter. At some point the system will break because it is bloated and overpriced, and the consumer is put last.
Yes what you say is true about it not being linked to your salary like in the UK (the average salary in the UK is about 40k CHF pa!) & premiums going up but I don’t understand when you say that people are dropping out of the system, I maybe wrong but I thought that was illegal, what do they do go to Germany or France like some do for their weekly shop?!
People are living longer, all Switzerland have to do is put less funds into things like the Army & more into Health they have already started to do this with pensions.
As for Britain, we would pay a lot more in Tax & National Insurance, get much less and have poor waiting times etc. For me and my family we pay about 650 CHF per month for 2 Adults & 2 Kids (For the 2 Kids we get a child allowance which is tax deductible of about 350 CHF……do the math) Health insurance in Switzerland is good value and I am not complaining.
As the article below (from last summer) shows 400,000 people have problems paying their health bills, and 150,000 people in Switzerland have no health insurance. Hardly a good advert for the system. http://www.blick.ch/news/wirtschaft/schweizer-koennen-die-praemien-nicht-mehr-zahlen-151880
It doesn’t surprise me that Graubünden is the most expensive place to own a car, as cars were completely forbidden in Graubünden until 1925… (maybe you even mention it in your book, I don’t remember). By the way, I wish you all the best and a lot of success in your new occupation as a full-time writer!
– would have liked to meet you at Stauffacher’s, where I am an occasional customer, but it happened so that you always weren’t there when I visited the shop; well, at least I bought a signed copy of “Swiss Watching” 
Having left Bern some 40 years ago (originally from Hettiswil) and not been back at all – it’s far from the end of the world – I quite enjoy your stories. So here is a big thank you!
Spent my apprenticeship years as compositor – most of us dead now, I guess – in Bern and always remember the town with fondness.
New Zealand is good to me: love its space and freedom. Still, I speak my Kiwi English slowly and with accent… probably always a Bärner.
Thanks again. I look forward to the next installment. Best wishes for the writer’s career.
I just love this kind of information. I agree with Fergus and yourself in your first two comments. But from experience living in Switzerland and paying the highest deductable possible in Vaud, Fergus you are misled. I was paying 200 CHF per month for a single 20 something person with 1800 deductible before I was able to have my insurance pay anything. Doing that math, that adds up to a lot more in health care costs for Switzerland. One doc visit alone for me was about 180CHF, although be it great service, and that was for a simple blood test to be sure I was not anemic and was sent on my way with some meds.
Sorry for the late reply……we have been on holiday in the UK, Scotland to be precise, a country that wants to go independent like Switzerland from the EU! 2 of my Grandfathers are Scottish & I love the place by the way!
Diccon I did not know that you read the Blick!? I only look at the pictures in the Blick!!!!!!!!
You surprise me, so what the Blick is saying 150,000 people are breaking the law! More facts please.
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