Category: Switzerland

New Eurostat data revealed that on January 1st 2025, some 46.7 million people living in the EU were born in third countries (non-EU/Schengen), a 1.9 million increase over the previous year.

When it comes to citizenship, 30.6 million residents in the EU were third country nationals, 1.6 million more than in 2023, representing 6.8 per cent of the total EU population.

Eurostat, the EU statistical office, analyses data on both the country of birth and nationality given that a person’s citizenship can change over a lifetime.

In 2025 some 18 million residents were born in another EU member state and 14.1 million had the citizenship of another EU country, about 100,000 more than the previous year. EU citizens who had moved across the bloc represented about 4 per cent of the EU population.

Countries with most foreign-born residents

Smaller countries in Western Europe had the biggest share of foreign-born residents in 2024. In the lead was Luxembourg, where 51 percent of the total population was born abroad, in Malta some 32 percent of residents were born abroad, and in Cyprus it was almost 28 percent. In Ireland 23 percent of residents were born abroad and in Austria the figure stood at 22 percent.

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Then came two of the bigger European countries – Sweden and Germany, where just over 20 percent of residents in each country were born abroad.

The figures revealed that some 19.3 percent of Spain’s population was born abroad, for Denmark it was 14.4 percent, France was slightly lower on 14 percent and Italy at 11.8 percent.

Switzerland, which is in Schengen and the European Free Trade Association, counted 31.7 percent of its population as foreign-born whilst for Norway – also a Schengen/EFTA country – the figure was 18.7 percent.

In contrast, the proportion of foreign born residents among the population was less than 5 per cent in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. Similar patterns were recorded regarding citizenship.

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Eurostat chart

In absolute numbers, Germany (17.2 million), France (9.6 million), Spain (9.5 million) and Italy (6.9 million) had the largest number of foreign-born residents. Taken together, these four countries counted almost 67 percent of the total of foreign-born residents in the EU.

Sweden counted 2.2 million foreign-born residents, Denmark 862,000, Austria 2.1 million whilst Switzerland was home to 2.8 million foreign-born residents and Norway around 1 million.

Eurostat noted that in the past 10 years – between January 1st 2015 and January 1st 2025 – the proportion of foreign-born residents increased in most EU countries. Only in Latvia and Greece did it decline.

“Migration is influenced by a combination of economic, environmental, political and social factors: either in a migrant’s country of origin (push factors) or in the country of destination (pull factors),” the Eurostat report says.

“Historically, the relative economic prosperity and political stability of the EU are thought to have exerted a considerable pull effect on immigrants,” the document adds.

The largest groups of third country nationals living in EU countries were from Ukraine, Turkey and Morocco, while Romanian, Italian and Polish citizens were the three largest groups living in other EU member states.

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International migration

Data on international migration refers to people who have migrated to an EU country for various reasons for one year or more, according to Eurostat. In 2024, 4.2 million people moved to the EU from non-EU countries, compared to 4.4 million in 2023.

In the same year, 1.5 million people moved from one EU member state to another, and 1.6 million moved from the EU to a country outside the bloc.

All EU countries with available data, except for Latvia, reported more immigration than emigration.

Many people also move to return to their country of origin. For example in 2024, native-born people made up more than half of the number of immigrants in Romania and Latvia.

With almost 1,288,600 million arrivals, Spain reported the largest total number of immigrants in 2024, followed by Germany (1,078,500), Italy (451,600), and France (438,600).

Spain, Germany and France also reported the biggest number of emigrants in 2024, 662,300, 584,200 and 263,200 respectively, Eurostat reports.

On Monday morning a man was shot at with a crossbow at Lyss train station in canton Bern. He was not injured, the Bern cantonal police said on Tuesday.

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An investigation has been opened to determine the circumstances and motives behind this act.

Emergency services received the call shortly before 5am and attended to the victim on the spot. The man was taken to hospital by ambulance for a check-up.

The suspect fired several arrows and was arrested shortly afterwards. He is currently in custody. Preliminary findings indicate that the victim and the alleged perpetrator did not know each other.

+ Swiss crime fell in 2025 but homicides and serious violence rose

Adapted from French by AI/ts

A teenager injured in the fire that engulfed a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana during new year celebrations has died in hospital, taking the death toll from the blaze to 41.

The Wallis canton’s public prosecutor, Beatrice Pilloud, said in a brief statement on Sunday: “An 18-year-old Swiss national died at a hospital in Zurich on January 31. The death toll from the fire at Le Constellation bar on January 1 2026 has now risen to 41.”

Pilloud said her office, which is investigating the tragedy, would release no further information at this stage.

Those killed in the disaster were aged 14 to 39, and most were teenagers. Only four were aged over 24. Another 115 people were injured, most of whom remain in various hospitals.

Among the dead were 23 Swiss nationals, including one French-Swiss dual national, and 18 foreigners. There were eight French nationals, including a French-British-Israeli girl; six Italian teenagers, including an Italian-Emirati dual national; and one Belgian, one Portuguese, one Romanian and one Turkish national.

Public prosecutors believe the fire started when revellers raised champagne bottles with sparklers attached too close to sound insulation foam on the ceiling of the bar’s basement.

Four people are under criminal investigation: the bar’s co-owners, the Crans-Montana municipality’s head of public safety and a former Crans-Montana fire safety officer.

After the fire, seriously wounded patients were airlifted to various hospitals and specialist burns units throughout Switzerland and in four other European countries.

Switzerland’s federal office for civil protection said on Friday that as of Monday 44 patients were being treated abroad – 18 in France, 12 in Italy, eight in Germany and six in Belgium.

The Wallis health ministry said 37 patients were still in Swiss hospitals as of Monday.

The picture is constantly changing, with patients moving between hospitals for different stages of their treatment, and some patients being readmitted. Some remain in intensive care.

The ‘No to 10 million’ initiative will be voted on in a national referendum on June 14th, bringing an end – one way or another – to months of heated debates about this highly contentious and divisive topic.

The proposal’s basic premise is that immigration should be drastically reduced, so that the country’s population doesn’t exceed the 10-million mark, which the party says will overburden key infrastructure, such as housing, public transport, the health system, and schools.

READ MORE: What exactly does the Swiss ‘no to 10 million’ anti-immigration proposal aim to do? 

Stepping up its strategy

Though it may seem that everything has already been said and written about this measure, those arguments have only provided a foretaste of what the party has brought out during the launch of its official campaign on March 24.

It listed these arguments to strengthen its position:

• Since the introduction of the free movement of persons within the EU, 1.5 million immigrants have arrived in Switzerland.
• The Swiss population is growing 16 times faster than Germany’s.
• The foreign population now stands at 2,414,408, representing 28 percent of the total population. Furthermore, over 1 million foreigners have been naturalised since 2002.
• Currently, more than 100,000 additional immigrants arrive in Switzerland each year from the EU, third countries, and via the asylum process.
• Since 2000, over 655,000 asylum applications have been filed in Switzerland, mostly by young Muslim men from around the world.
• Every second, approximately one square metre of green space disappears [to construct new housing in order to accommodate new arrivals]. Our beautiful Switzerland is being paved over.

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Opposing voices

Though demographers do confirm the population growth due to immigration  expected to reach the 10’-million mark before 2050 – SVP’s other arguments about the danger of itoo many foreigners have been repeatedly refuted by the Federal Council, the Parliament, economists, employers’ associations, and a multi-party coalition, among other critics.

READ MORE: Who is leading the fight in Switzerland against the anti-immigration proposal? 

They say that if the imitiative were to become law, Switzerland would suffer significant lossses in terms of its economic growth and relations with the European Union.

For instance, according to the Federal Council, “Switzerland  needs immigration. Without German and French workers, the Swiss healthcare system would collapse. And sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and hospitality are also particularly dependent on foreign labour.”

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And Beat Jans, the minister in charge of the Police and Justice Department, which is responsible for immigration, also proffered this warning: “The British have experienced what it means to leave access to the single market and free movement. And the majority of the country now regrets Brexit. We must learn from this lesson.”

READ MORE: How will you be affected if Switzerland’s anti-immigration proposal wins? 

 

The number of serious accidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters in Switzerland is high. Last year, 27 people were killed in accidents. The Swiss Council for Accident Prevention urges users to anticipate road situations and to follow the rules.

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According to the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (BFU), 586 people on e-bikes and 152 on e-scooters were seriously injured last year; 24 e-bike riders and three people on e-scooters suffered fatal injuries in accidents.

The BFU cites the higher speeds, which increase braking distances and shorten reaction times, as the reason for the high risk. The vehicles also lack a crumple zone. Other road users often recognise the narrow silhouettes too late or misjudge the speed.

+ Brain overload and faulty judgment cause most road accidents

The BFU recommends anticipating the road situation and adapting one’s speed to the circumstances. It is also important to use clear hand signals when turning, to have functioning lights and to wear a helmet and light-coloured clothing for better visibility.

Helmets are compulsory for fast e-bikes. In general, e-bikes and e-scooters may only be ridden from the age of 14 with a moped licence and from the age of 16 without a licence. For all e-vehicles, lights are also compulsory during the day and an alcohol limit of 0.5 per mille applies.

Adapted from German by AI/ts

A memorial for the victims of a deadly fire at a new year party in Switzerland caught fire early on Sunday, probably sparked by candles left burning inside, police have said.

The memorial was a makeshift tribute to the 41 people killed and the 115 injured in the fire that erupted in the early hours of 1 January at Le Constellation bar in the ski resort town of Crans-Montana, which was packed with mainly teenagers and young adults.

Laden with flowers, candles and messages of condolence, it had been set up near the site of the tragedy. It caught alight shortly before 6am on Sunday, regional police in Switzerland’s south-western canton of Valais said in a statement.

Images broadcast by Swiss public broadcaster RTS on Sunday showed the blackened top of a white, igloo-like tarpaulin erected over the memorial to protect it from the weather, visible behind a white screen and police tape.

“Thanks to the rapid intervention of the emergency services, the fire was quickly brought under control,” police said.

No one was injured in the fire at the memorial, they said, though “several commemorative objects were damaged by the flames”.

A large book of remembrance, filled with messages of condolence left by those who have visited the memorial over the past five weeks, had been saved, the statement said.

Police said an investigation had been opened into what caused the blaze at the memorial, which had initially been placed in front of the burned-out bar but which had recently been moved a bit farther away.

“According to initial reports, the fire started near the candles placed on a table in the centre of the memorial,” the statement said. “At this stage, third-party involvement can be ruled out.”

Investigators believe that the new year inferno at Le Constellation started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to a ceiling in the bar crowded with revellers, igniting sound insulation foam.

The French couple who co-owned the bar, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, are facing charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence.

Crans-Montana’s head of public safety and a former local fire safety officer are also under criminal investigation in connection with the blaze at the bar, which had not undergone mandatory annual fire inspections since 2019.

Following weeks of harsh criticism of local and regional authorities’ handling of the crisis and the investigation, family members voiced consternation upon learning of the fire at the memorial.

“What to say?” Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, whose 16-year-old son Arthur Brodard was among those who died at Le Constellation, posted on Facebook over a link to a report about the memorial fire. “It is the municipality’s responsibility to ensure a memorial that is secure.”

An upgrade of the cable car mechanism would not have prevented it from crashing in the Swiss Alps

The crash on March 18th, which killed the sole person on board when the cabin tumbled down a mountain in Engelberg, was due to a faulty clamp, which came loose from the cable.

However, according to the Swiss Safety Investigation Board (STSB), in strong winds – as was the case on the day of the accident – “any system reaches its limit.”

“It’s pure physics and geometry,” said STSB’s head Philipp Thürler. “Changes to the locking mechanism would not have provided greater safety.”

Swiss deputies discuss how to combat increase in crime among foreign residents

Foreigners continue to be overrepresented in crime statistics, as the latest data published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Monday indicates. 

The measures to be taken depend on how right- or left-wing a given party is.

Not surprisingly, the populist Swiss People Party (SVP), along with the Liberal Radicals, are calling for more consistent deportations.

The Social Democrats and Green Liberals, on the other hand, want to focus on prevention, particularly in the area of ​​domestic violence.

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 More and more foreigners are travelling to Switzerland to die

The reason is Switzerland’s assisted dying law, which is more liberal than practically anywhere else in the world.

According to media reports on Monday, some assisted dying organisations that accept foreign nationals – unlike EXIT, which is only open to Swiss residents – are reaching their capacity limits due to the increasing number of requests from abroad. 

One such organisation, Dignitas, reports a record number of requests, particularly from English-speaking countries

Last year, for instance, one in five of the 280 people who accessed its services came from the United States, and one in six from the UK.

READ MORE: What you should know about assisted dying in Switzerland 

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SWISS extends its suspension of Middle East

Due to ongoing war in Iran and continued unrest in the region, SWISS airline has extended its flight cancellations as follows:

Dubai through May 31th

Tel Aviv through May 31

Abu Dhabi through October 24th

Amman through October 24th

Beirut through October 24th

Dammam through October 24th

Riyadh through October 24th

Erbil through October 24th

Muscat through October 24th

Tehran through October 24th

 

If you have any questions about life in Switzerland, ideas for articles or news tips for The Local, please get in touch with us at news@thelocal.ch

 

The Swiss stock exchange SIX suffered a high loss in 2025. The Worldline shareholding responsible for this has now fallen to below 1.5%.

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At CHF561 million ($713 million), the value adjustment announced at the beginning of November due to the investment in the crisis-hit Worldline was even slightly higher than expected. The loss for 2025 thus totalled CHF314 million after a profit of CHF39 million in 2024, SIX announced on Tuesday. Adjusted for the one-off effect, net profit totalled CHF247 million.

As SIX has decided not to participate in the capital increase announced by Worldline, the stake will be diluted to around 1.3%. The remaining value of the stake will no longer have a material negative impact on the financial results of SIX, it said.

+ Swiss stock exchange takes off after US truce

Operating income rose by 4.7% to CHF1.66 billion in 2025. In addition to higher trading volumes and growth in the Exchanges business unit, the Financial Information and Banking Services business units also increased. Meanwhile, income in the Securities Services business unit declined slightly. The operating result EBITDA at Group level increased by 3.7% to CHF460 million.

Product portfolio ‘optimised’

It said 2025 was characterised by the restructuring of the Group initiated around a year ago: in addition to measures to promote sales growth, business models were “harmonised”, governance structures were “streamlined” and project, product and investment portfolios were “optimised”.

The Board of Directors is proposing a stable dividend of CHF5.30 per share for 2025 to the Annual General Meeting. SIX is owned by around 120 financial institutions, which are also clients of the financial infrastructure service provider, with UBS holding the largest stake at 34.5%.

Meanwhile, Roger Reist will not be standing for re-election to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on May 6. He has been a member of the Supervisory Board since May 8, 2023. Reist was Raiffeisen’s representative on the SIX Board of Directors but will become Head of “Institutionals & Multinationals” at Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) on July 1. A successor has not yet been named.

Adapted from German by AI/ts