Dual citizenship is increasing in Switzerland
On January 26, 2023, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) published data on dual citizenship in Switzerland. Between 2010 and 2021, the number of Swiss people over the age of 15 with another nationality rose from 13.8% to 19.5%, which corresponds to an increase of 5.7 percentage points.
The number of Swiss with a different nationality has risen steadily since 2010. Only in 2018 there was no increase.
48.7% of dual nationals were born in Switzerland. The other 51.3% were born abroad.
The top 10 additional nationalities were Italians (23.1% of all dual citizens), French (11.2%), Germans (9.4%), Turks (4.4%), Portuguese (4.2%), Spaniards (4.0%), Serbs (3.5%). ), Kosovars (3.2%), British (2.4%) and Bosnians and Herzegovinians (2.3%). These 10 accounted for nearly 68% of all dual nationals.
Although people with dual citizenship (5.1%) were more likely to be unemployed than people with only Swiss citizenship (3.4%), they were also more likely to be employed. 63.7% of dual nationals were employed, compared to 59.2% of the sole Swiss population. This largely reflects the relative youth of dual nationals. Only 14% of dual nationals were over 64 years old, compared to almost 26% of the Swiss alone population.
Dual nationals were also more likely to have completed tertiary education (40.3% vs. 37.2%). They were also more likely to have had no post-school education (19.8% vs. 16.4%).
Swiss cantons with the highest dual citizenship rates were Geneva (48%), Vaud (31%), Ticino (30%), Neuchâtel (27%), Basel-Stadt (25%), Zurich (24%), Valais (18%) , Zug (18%), Schaffhausen (17%) and Basel-Landschaft 16%. The canton with the lowest rate was Obwalden (6%).
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