At the end of 2023, 813,400 Swiss nationals were living abroad. This represents an increase of 1.7% compared to 2022. Around 11% of the Swiss population lives abroad. By the end of 2023 64% of the 813,400 Swiss nationals who were residing abroad were living in Europe.
The most popular destination: France
France has the largest Swiss expatriate community in Europe, followed by Germany and Italy.
Number of senior citizens continues to grow
21% of Swiss citizens abroad are aged under 18, 56% between 18 and 64 and 23% 65 or over. Numbers increased in all age groups by +1.2%, +0.9% and +3.9%, respectively, compared with 2022. As in the previous year, the greatest change was therefore recorded for senior citizens.
Which countries are most popular on the other continents?
Some 292 700 Swiss citizens live on other continents, i.e. 16% in North America, 7% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 7% in Asia, 4% in Oceania and 2% in Africa.
The largest community of Swiss nationals outside Europe is in North America, namely in the United States, where 83,700 Swiss reside. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Argentina is the country with the most Swiss nationals (15,100, or 2% of all Swiss nationals abroad), ahead of Brazil (13,600) and Chile (5700). On the Asian continent, the largest Swiss community (23,700) resides in Israel, representing 3% of the Swiss abroad. It comes before Thailand (10’400) and the Philippines (3600). In Oceania, the Swiss community is concentrated mainly in Australia (26,400) and New Zealand (7300). South Africa is where the largest number of Swiss nationals reside on the African continent (7700, or 1% of all Swiss nationals living abroad).
When looking at the countries with the most Swiss residents in each continent, an increase in numbers can be observed between 2022 and 2023: in France (+2854; +1.4%), in the United States (+1005; +1.2%), in Argentina (+42; +0.3%), in Australia (+286; +1.1%) and in Israel, where growth was the highest (+833; +3.6%).
Further information, graphs and the interactive table can be found on the following FSO page:
Swiss abroad in 2023 (Publication, Federal Statistical Office)
