CH · ZURICHLocal facts

Living in Zurich.

Switzerland’s largest city and its financial centre, on the lake at the foot of the Alps. A third of residents are foreign nationals and English carries further here than anywhere else in the country, but daily administration runs in German. Rents are the highest in this dataset, and the compulsory health premium adds a flat charge on top of tax.

VerifiedSep 8, 2026Updated Sep 9, 2026

Population 440,935

BFS — Permanent and non-permanent resident population by commune (STATPOP, 2025)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Permanent resident population of the commune of Zurich at 31 December 2025, which the register reports identically for the Bezirk Zürich because the district is the city. A further 4,579 people were counted as non-permanent residents. The city is a fifth of the canton’s 1.63 million.

· Europe/Zurich· Switzerland rules apply

CH · ZURICH

At a glance

The headline numbers for Zurich — each with its own source and freshness. A live official figure is not the same as a survey estimate or a 30-year climate normal.

Cost of living

4.2/10

$2,028/mo

Rent, 1–3 bed

2.1/10

$2,231–$4,072

/mo

Freelancer tax

5.4/10

27.8%

Safety

10.0/10

0.5/100k

Air quality

8.7/10

8.3 µg/m³

Internet

6.5/10

89 Mbps

English

7.0/10

High

Private health

0.0/10

$8,437/yr

What the tags meanofficial — live figure from a government or authorityopen data — open dataset (Eurostat, EEA, M-Lab, UdSC…)survey — survey or index estimatecurated — SettleMetric-assembled estimate — open the source for the method

What it costs you per month

A planning estimate: real asking rent plus a cost-of-living basket scaled to your household. Not a quote.

Household

Lifestyle

Location

Estimated total

$4,258/mo

≈ $51,096 / year

Where it goes

Rent (1-bed)$2,231
Transport$442
Food & non-alcoholic drinks$379
Recreation, entertainment & culture$290
Restaurants & cafés$254
Other goods & services$190
Utilities (service charges & home energy)$161
Household goods & running the home$120
Communications (mobile + internet)$96
Clothing & footwear$95
Living costs$2,027

Rent from the asking-rent matrix below. Living costs scale a one-person basket ($2,027/mo) by household size and lifestyle; the equivalence factors are our assumption. Schooling and one-off setup are excluded.

Cost of living

What a single person spends each month — food, utilities, transport, eating out and the rest — excluding rent.

Typical monthly spending (national average)

BFS — Haushaltsbudgeterhebung 2023: Haushaltseinkommen und -ausgaben sämtlicher Haushalte, und detaillierte Haushaltsausgaben

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Each 2023 household-average category divided by the survey's mean household size of 2.07 and converted at 1 CHF = 1.2306 USD; the nine items sum to the $2,028 headline.
Notes: Transport is the largest line and the one most open to change: CHF 555 of the household's CHF 744 is buying and running a car, against CHF 189 on public transport, so a car-free household in Zurich or Geneva — where that is entirely practical — cuts this basket by a good deal more than the difference in fares suggests.

total2,027 USD/mo

01Transport442 USD

02Food & non-alcoholic drinks379 USD

03Recreation, entertainment & culture290 USD

04Restaurants & cafés254 USD

05Other goods & services190 USD

06Utilities (service charges & home energy)161 USD

07Household goods & running the home120 USD

08Communications (mobile + internet)96 USD

09Clothing & footwear95 USD

Switzerland's household-budget basket for a single person, excluding rent. Non-rent costs vary little between cities — the city-specific part is rent, shown under Housing below.

01Cost of living (single, excl. rent)country-level2,028USD/month, single person, excluding rent4.2

What this measures

Monthly cost of a defined single-person basket (food, transport, utilities, mobile+internet, modest leisure) excluding rent, curated from national statistics office price data and large local retailers' published prices, converted to USD at the ECB rate recorded in fx-rates. The method field of each value itemizes the basket inputs.

Lower is betterUSD/month, single person, excluding rentre-verified every 365 days

Curated by SettleMetric

BFS — Haushaltsbudgeterhebung 2023: Haushaltseinkommen und -ausgaben sämtlicher Haushalte, und detaillierte Haushaltsausgaben

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Basket built from the 2023 Swiss household budget survey, per household per month in CHF: food and non-alcoholic drinks 637.76 + restaurants and cafés 427.20 (COICOP 531, excluding the 131.28 spent on accommodation) + service charges and energy of the main residence 271.46 (5712 + 5713, so the utilities without the 1,081.64 of net rent) + household goods and running the home 201.16 + clothing and footwear 160.60 + transport 743.53 + communications 161.81 + recreation, entertainment and culture 488.23 + other goods and services 319.26 = 3,411.01. Divided by the survey's own mean household size of 2.07 persons = CHF 1,647.83 per person per month, converted at 1 CHF = 1.2306 USD (ECB rates of 2026-08-13) = $2,028. Excluded: rent, alcohol and tobacco, out-of-pocket health spending, insurance premiums, taxes and social contributions.
Notes: Two things to hold against this figure. It is a PER-CAPITA share of average household spending, not a measured single-person budget, and a person living alone carries utilities, communications and household costs that a two-person household splits — so a real single in Zurich or Geneva will spend more than this. And it is 2023 data, the latest the survey publishes, with no inflation uplift applied. Health insurance is deliberately outside the basket even though it is compulsory, because it is carried separately by healthcare-private-cost and by the tax burden; add roughly $650/month for it if you want the all-in figure.

Housing

What it costs to rent, by apartment type and location.

Asking rent by apartment type & location

Statistik Stadt Zürich — Mietpreiserhebung 2024 (market segment, gross rents by room count and Stadtkreis)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Apr 30, 2024
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Statistik Stadt Zürich surveys actual rents every two years; the April 2024 round publishes them by room count and Stadtkreis, split between the non-profit and the market segment. Central = the unweighted mean of Kreise 1–8, outside = Kreise 9–12, market segment only (a cooperative flat is far cheaper but has a waiting list a newcomer cannot join). Gross rents, i.e. including Nebenkosten. Each room class is then lifted to a NEW-LEASE basis by the city’s own "Neubezug bis 2 Jahre" figures for the whole city (2-room ×1.0709, 3-room ×1.0900, 4-room ×1.0979). Swiss flats are counted in rooms, so 2-room = 1BR, 3-room = 2BR, 4-room = 3BR. The survey has no 1-room class, so the studio cell is the 1BR cell × 0.7338, the canton of Zurich 1-room/2-room ratio in the BFS 2024 rent survey. Converted at 1 CHF = 1.2306 USD (ECB rates of 2026-08-13).
Notes: NEW-LEASE basis, which is the one that matters when you are the one signing. Zurich’s sitting tenants pay less — the same market 3-room flat averages CHF 2,221/month across all contracts against CHF 2,421 for those signed in the last two years, and a non-profit 3-room flat averages CHF 1,268. Roughly a quarter of Zurich’s rental stock is co-operative or municipal and effectively closed to an arriving foreigner. The studio row is the weakest cell: it is derived from a cantonal ratio because the city survey does not cover 1-room flats.

NEW-LEASE basis, which is the one that matters when you are the one signing. Zurich’s sitting tenants pay less — the same market 3-room flat averages CHF 2,221/month across all contracts against CHF 2,421 for those signed in the last two years, and a non-profit 3-room flat averages CHF 1,268. Roughly a quarter of Zurich’s rental stock is co-operative or municipal and effectively closed to an arriving foreigner. The studio row is the weakest cell: it is derived from a cantonal ratio because the city survey does not cover 1-room flats.

Apartment	Central	Outside centre
Studio	1,982 USD/mo	1,637 USD/mo
1-bedroom	2,701 USD/mo	2,231 USD/mo
2-bedroom	3,359 USD/mo	2,673 USD/mo
3-bedroom	4,072 USD/mo	3,283 USD/mo

Climate

Temperature and rainfall through the year, plus air quality.

Monthly normals — Zurich

NOAA/WMO Climate Normals 1991–2020 — station ZUERICH / FLUNTERN (WMO 06660, 556 m)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Zürich/Fluntern sits at 556 m on the Zürichberg above the city, the reference station MeteoSwiss has used for Zurich since the 19th century. The record is a cool, wet-summer continental profile: 1,108 mm of rain a year, more of it in June and July than in January, and only 1,694 hours of sunshine. Annual means over 1991–2020: tMax 14.0 °C, tMin 6.2 °C, mean 9.8 °C.

Daytime high °CNighttime low °CRainfall mm

Average day/night temperature (lines, left axis) and total rainfall (bars, right axis) for each month — 1991–2020 normals. Hover a month for exact figures.

Month by month
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Daytime high °C	3.5°	5.2°	10.2°	14.8°	18.8°	22.4°	24.3°	23.9°	19.1°	13.8°	7.6°	4.0°
Nighttime low °C	-1.4°	-1.2°	1.9°	5.1°	9.0°	12.6°	14.4°	14.3°	10.7°	7.1°	2.5°	-0.5°
Rainfall mm	63	60	71	80	128	128	126	119	87	85	76	83

01Climate comfort5pleasant months/year5.0

What this measures

Number of months whose 1991–2020 climate normals satisfy: mean daily maximum between 15°C and 28°C and monthly precipitation under 150mm. Computed from the city's climate-normals indicator; the raw normals are stored alongside so users can judge by their own taste.

Higher is betterpleasant months/yearre-verified every 3650 days

Open data

NOAA/WMO Climate Normals 1991–2020 — station ZUERICH / FLUNTERN (WMO 06660, 556 m)

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum between 15 °C and 28 °C and under 150 mm of precipitation: May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep. Computed from the climate-normals stored alongside.

02Air quality (PM2.5)8.3µg/m³, annual mean PM2.58.7

What this measures

Annual mean fine-particulate (PM2.5) concentration for the city, latest available year. Anchors follow the WHO 2021 guideline (5 µg/m³ → 10) through the EU limit value territory (25 µg/m³ → 2). Preferred source: European Environment Agency city-level air quality data; outside Europe: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database or the national monitoring network.

Lower is betterµg/m³, annual mean PM2.5re-verified every 730 days

Official source

Umwelt- und Gesundheitsschutz Zürich — daily air-quality measurements since 1983 (open data, CC0)

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Unweighted mean of the 2025 annual means of the city’s four PM2.5 stations, computed from the published validated daily values: Heubeeribüel 7.00, Rosengartenstrasse 8.60, Schimmelstrasse 8.91, Stampfenbachstrasse 8.57 µg/m³. Coverage is 99–100% of days at every station.
Notes: A genuinely clean year on a complete record — every station sits below the EU limit of 25 µg/m³ and above the WHO guideline of 5. The spread is the traffic signal: the two roadside stations (Rosengartenstrasse, Schimmelstrasse) read about 1.6 µg/m³ higher than the parkland station on the Zürichberg, so the number you breathe depends on which street you live on.

Safety

How safe daily life is, from official crime statistics.

01Homicide ratecountry-level0.5intentional homicides per 100,000/year10.0

What this measures

Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 population, latest available year. Country level: UNODC national series. City level: official municipal/police statistics where published; otherwise null (country value shown as country-level).

Lower is betterintentional homicides per 100,000/yearre-verified every 730 days

Open data

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: 0.50 per 100,000 in 2024, at the very bottom of the European range and stable: the series has moved between 0.48 and 0.71 every year since 2008 with no trend.

Crime by offence typecountry-levelpolice-recorded per 100,000 · 2024

Eurostat — police-recorded offences by category (crim_off_cat, ICCS, unit P_HTHAB)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: The shape is the interesting part, not the level: violence against the person is very low (serious assault 11.5, robbery 23.6 per 100,000) while property and fraud offences are high — theft at 1,966 per 100,000 is among the higher rates reported to Eurostat. Recorded-crime counts reflect legal definitions and reporting habits as much as events, so these are context rather than a grade, and a country where people readily report a stolen bicycle will look worse than one where they do not.

01Theft1,966per 100k

02Drug offences538per 100k

03Burglary514per 100k

04Fraud412per 100k

05Sexual violence53.9per 100k

06Robbery23.6per 100k

07Serious assault11.5per 100k

The shape is the interesting part, not the level: violence against the person is very low (serious assault 11.5, robbery 23.6 per 100,000) while property and fraud offences are high — theft at 1,966 per 100,000 is among the higher rates reported to Eurostat. Recorded-crime counts reflect legal definitions and reporting habits as much as events, so these are context rather than a grade, and a country where people readily report a stolen bicycle will look worse than one where they do not.

Hate crime (police-recorded)country-levelpolice-recorded · 2024

OSCE ODIHR Hate Crime Reporting — Switzerland (official data reported by the State)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: 595 offences recorded in 2024 and 104 sentences, up from 401 in 2023 and 159 in 2018. Do not read that rise as a rise in hatred: Switzerland has NO hate-crime provision in its criminal code, so these are prosecutions under Art. 261bis (discrimination and incitement to hatred), a count ODIHR itself notes includes offences outside its own hate-crime definition. There is also no breakdown by bias motive — ODIHR records that Swiss police do not register one — so the racist and xenophobic subset shown for other countries cannot be given here, and ODIHR's own key observation is that Swiss recording 'does not sufficiently distinguish hate crimes from other crimes'.

595

recorded by police

595 offences recorded in 2024 and 104 sentences, up from 401 in 2023 and 159 in 2018. Do not read that rise as a rise in hatred: Switzerland has NO hate-crime provision in its criminal code, so these are prosecutions under Art. 261bis (discrimination and incitement to hatred), a count ODIHR itself notes includes offences outside its own hate-crime definition. There is also no breakdown by bias motive — ODIHR records that Swiss police do not register one — so the racist and xenophobic subset shown for other countries cannot be given here, and ODIHR's own key observation is that Swiss recording 'does not sufficiently distinguish hate crimes from other crimes'.

Infrastructure

Internet speed and how parcels get to your door.

01Domestic delivery qualitycountry-levelExcellent10.0

What this measures

Quality of in-country parcel delivery. excellent = nationwide next-day widely available, dense parcel-locker network, real-time tracking standard; good = 1–3 day delivery, lockers in major cities; basic = reliable but slow (3–7 days), mostly to-door or post-office pickup; poor = unreliable delivery, street addresses often unusable, informal workarounds common. Classified from official service/coverage data of the national postal operator and the two largest private carriers; inputs itemized in each value's method field.

Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days

Official source

Die Schweizerische Post — Finanzbericht 2024 (Zugangspunkte) und My Post 24

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 9, 2026
Method: Inputs: A-Post priority mail must arrive on the working day after posting, everywhere in the country; Swiss Post reports over 5,000 access points in its 2024 financial report, of which about 2,000 are staffed, plus 770 Postomaten, 563 drop-off and collection points in retailers such as Migros, and 14,077 letter boxes; tracking is standard on parcels.
Notes: The one part of the definition Switzerland does not meet on its own terms is the parcel-locker network: 303 My Post 24 terminals for nine million people is thin next to the locker-first markets in this dataset, where the count runs into five figures. What Switzerland has instead is an unusually dense network of STAFFED counters and retail collection points, which does the same job with different opening hours. Rated excellent on speed, coverage and tracking, with that caveat visible rather than averaged away.

02International delivery easecountry-levelMinor friction7.0

What this measures

Ease of receiving goods from abroad. seamless = major international carriers deliver door-to-door, meaningful duty-free de-minimis threshold, customs clearance predictable in days; minor-friction = carriers present but low de-minimis, extra paperwork or routine delays; significant-friction = frequent customs holds, high brokerage fees, some marketplaces refuse to ship; unreliable = parcels regularly lost or blocked, informal import channels dominate. De-minimis thresholds and clearance rules from the national customs authority (official source, cite the regulation); carrier presence from carriers' official pages.

Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days

Official source

BAZG — Empfangen von Briefen und Paketen (Kleinsendungen, Wertfreigrenze)

Data as of: Sep 9, 2026
Verified: Sep 9, 2026
Method: Switzerland is outside the EU customs union, so every consignment is cleared. Import VAT is waived only where the tax due would be under CHF 5, which is a goods value of CHF 62 at the standard 8.1% rate and CHF 193 at the reduced 2.6% rate (books, food); customs duty under CHF 5 is likewise not levied, and unsolicited gifts between private individuals are free up to CHF 100. All the major carriers deliver door to door, and they set their own clearance fees, over which the customs administration states it has no influence.
Notes: Not friction from delay — clearance is quick and predictable — but from the threshold and the handling fee. A CHF 62 de-minimis is low, and the carrier's customs-clearance charge is often larger than the tax it collects, which is why a small parcel from an EU shop can arrive costing noticeably more than its price. Coming from an EU country this is the change people notice first: the same order that used to arrive with nothing to pay now clears customs.

03Internet speedcountry-level88.5Mbps, median fixed download6.5

What this measures

Median fixed-broadband download speed over the trailing 6 months from M-Lab NDT open data (CC0), aggregated at country or city level. Not comparable with Ookla figures (different test methodology) — do not mix sources within this criterion.

Higher is betterMbps, median fixed downloadre-verified every 365 days

Open data

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Switzerland

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Median of the 2023 daily country medians over 343 days and 406,505 tests; monthly medians ran 77.8–102.1 Mbps. 2023 is still the latest full year M-Lab's public stats API carries for Switzerland — the 2024 file stops on 26 March. M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads far below Ookla-style figures, so compare it only with other countries in this criterion.

Healthcare

What comprehensive private medical cover costs.

01Private healthcare costcountry-level8,437USD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old0.0

What this measures

Median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private medical insurance (outpatient + inpatient, ~$100k coverage, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old resident foreigner, from local and international insurers. Method field lists the insurers quoted.

Lower is betterUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-oldre-verified every 365 days

Official source

BAG/priminfo — approved 2026 premiums of compulsory health insurance, full report (gesamtbericht_ch.xlsx)

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Median of the 1,032 approved 2026 premiums across 34 insurers for an adult (age class 26+) on the standard model with free choice of doctor, the lowest CHF 300 franchise and accident cover included: CHF 571.35/month = CHF 6,856/year = $8,437 at 1 CHF = 1.2306 USD (ECB rates of 2026-08-13). Not a sample of three quotes — Switzerland approves and publishes every premium, so this is the whole population of them.
Notes: Switzerland is the one country in this dataset where the 'private insurance' figure is not optional: KVG/LAMal basic cover is a legal duty for every resident, so this number is a bill, not a choice, and it is already counted inside the freelancer tax burden. It buys more than the criterion asks for — there is no benefit ceiling at all, where the criterion assumes ~$100k. It is also the maximum-price configuration: the official enrolment-weighted average premium actually paid by adults in 2026 is CHF 465.30/month ($6,873/year) because most people take a restricted-choice model and a higher franchise, and the cheapest standard-model quote in the country is CHF 70/month lower than the median. City medians on the same basis: Zurich CHF 639.80/month, Bern CHF 681.50, Geneva CHF 752.20 — Geneva costs 18% more than Zurich for the same legal cover.

Money & crypto

Crypto rules and how freely personal money moves.

01Crypto regulationcountry-levelLegal friendly10.0

What this measures

Own classification of the legal status of holding, trading and cashing out cryptocurrency for individuals: legal-friendly (legal with clear, favourable rules or explicit tax exemptions), legal-regulated (legal under standard licensing/AML and taxation), restricted (partial bans: payments or banking access prohibited), banned (holding/trading prohibited). Classified from national regulators' and central banks' official positions.

Rated by category—re-verified every 180 days

Official source

ESTV — Kryptowährungen: Besteuerung (Arbeitspapier zu Kryptowährungen und Initial Coin/Token Offerings)

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Holding and trading are legal and the tax treatment is published rather than improvised: the Federal Tax Administration's working paper sets out that gains realised by a private individual managing private assets are TAX-FREE capital gains (Art. 16 Abs. 3 DBG), while the holding itself is subject to the annual wealth tax at its 31 December market value, and losses are correspondingly non-deductible. The exemption is not unconditional — where the scale, financing and frequency of trading go beyond private wealth management the activity is reclassified as self-employment and the gains become taxable income, which is the line to watch if you trade actively. Mining and staking rewards are income, not exempt gains.

02Financial control levelcountry-levelLow10.0

What this measures

Own composite of state control over personal money flows: currency/capital controls (IMF AREAER), restrictions on foreign accounts and transfers, mandatory income declaration scope for residents, cash payment limits, banking access for foreigners. Low = free movement of personal funds and easy non-resident banking; very-high = strict capital controls and pervasive reporting. Method field on each value lists the inputs used.

Rated by category—re-verified every 365 days

Official source

Bundesgesetz über die Bekämpfung der Geldwäscherei und der Terrorismusfinanzierung (GwG, SR 955.0)

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Inputs weighed: no exchange or capital controls on the movement of personal funds in or out of the country; no general legal ceiling on cash payments, only anti-money-laundering due-diligence duties on dealers and financial intermediaries under the GwG; residents declare worldwide income and worldwide net wealth in the annual cantonal return, and Switzerland exchanges account information automatically under the OECD standard.
Notes: Low control over the movement of money, but not low visibility. Two things surprise newcomers: the annual return asks for your WORLDWIDE assets, because the cantons levy a wealth tax on net assets, so there is a reporting duty here that most countries do not have; and opening an account is easy for a resident but often refused or heavily priced for non-residents, so 'Swiss bank account' is not something you arrange before you move.

Language

How far English gets you in daily life and services.

01English proficiencycountry-levelHigh7.0

What this measures

Own banding of how far English gets a resident in daily life (government offices, healthcare, housing, services). Informed by EF EPI band (research source, cited with attribution, not republished) plus official language status and service-sector realities. Values are our bands, not EF scores.

Rated by category—re-verified every 730 days

Research

EF EPI 2025 — Switzerland (rank 30/123, score 564, High band)

Data as of: Nov 1, 2025
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Our band, matching EF's own: 564 points, 30th of 123 countries and up 14 points on the previous edition. Do not read Switzerland as a Nordic-style English country — administration, healthcare and housing run in the local official language, which is German in Zurich and French in Geneva, and the two cities differ sharply in EF's own city scores (Zurich 621, Geneva 555). English gets a professional a long way inside international employers and almost nowhere inside a cantonal office.

Education

International schooling options for families.

01International schoolsno verified data—

What this measures

Count of international schools in the metro area accredited by or member of IB, CIS, COBIS, or an equivalent national-curriculum-abroad body (verified against the accreditor's public registry, not aggregator sites).

Higher is betteraccredited international schools, countre-verified every 730 days

Not counted. This criterion requires verification against the accreditors’ own registries rather than aggregator sites, and the IB directory’s school SEARCH is behind a bot challenge we do not bypass — individual school profiles are readable, but you cannot enumerate a city from them. Zurich certainly has several IB and other accredited international schools; publishing a number we could not derive from the registry would be a guess.

Demographics

Who else lives here — the share of foreign residents and the largest national communities, from official statistics.

Openness to foreignerscountry-levelVery openGallup MAI 7.21/9 · 2016

What this measures

How accepting the resident population is of migrants and foreigners — the inverse of xenophobia, a real concern for someone relocating. Our own five-band reading (very-open / open / moderate / reserved / low) informed primarily by the Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index (0–9 scale: three questions on migrants living in the country, becoming neighbours, and marrying into the family; 2019 wave), cross-checked where available with the World Values Survey wave 7 / European Values Study 2017 question on whether people would not want immigrants or foreign workers as neighbours (a higher share = more hostile). Banding guide against the Gallup 0–9 score: ≥7.0 very-open, 5.5–7.0 open, 4.0–5.5 moderate, 2.5–4.0 reserved, below 2.5 low (the 2019 global average of 5.21 sits in 'moderate'). Country level only: no credible city-level survey of attitudes to foreigners exists, so on city pages the country reading is shown as country context. Gallup is a research source cited with attribution, not republished in bulk; the raw index score/year and any cross-check figure are carried inside each value. Value shape: { band, gallupMai?, gallupYear?, unwantedNeighborPct?, unwantedNeighborSource? }. Display-only: attitudinal, survey-based and ~2019 vintage, so it is shown as honest context and never folded into the composite score.

Reference data—re-verified every 1825 days

Research

Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index, first wave (2016–2017 Gallup World Poll) — full 138-country table (research, attribution)

Data as of: Aug 23, 2017
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: 7.21 of 9, against a global average of 5.29 — 21st of the 138 countries surveyed, which puts Switzerland in our top band. Treat it as attitudinal and roughly a decade old: it measures whether people are comfortable with migrants living in the country, as neighbours and in the family, not how easy the country makes it to move there, and Switzerland scores very differently on those two questions.

Who lives thereforeign residents 34.2%

BFS — Permanent resident population of the commune of Zurich by citizenship (STATPOP, 2025)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: 150,726 foreign nationals in a permanent resident population of 440,935 at 31 December 2025 = 34.18%.
Notes: A third of the city holds a foreign passport, well above the Swiss average of 27.70% and eight points above Bern. Same broad basis as the country figure — everyone resident for at least twelve months, including settlement-permit holders of long standing — so it is comparable with the national number and with Geneva and Bern, all three taken from the same register.

Largest communities of foreign residents150,726 total

BFS — Permanent resident population of the commune of Zurich by citizenship (STATPOP, 2025)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: The eight largest of the 177 citizenships the register records for Zurich in 2025, ranked by count; shares are of the 150,726 foreign-resident total. Swiss citizens plus all 177 citizenship rows sum to exactly the published population of 440,935, which is what confirms the table is complete rather than a top-N extract.
Notes: Germany alone is a fifth of Zurich’s foreign residents, more than the next two combined, and with Austria the German-speaking share is a quarter — this is a city where a large part of the foreign population arrives already speaking the working language. The rest of the top eight is southern Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Greece together are another 28.5%. Neither Ukraine (3,423) nor Eritrea (3,427) quite makes the top eight, though both are larger than Türkiye’s neighbours in the list would suggest.

01Germany20.9%31,575

02Italy11.8%17,846

03Spain5.7%8,611

04Portugal4.6%6,880

05France3.9%5,864

06Austria3.3%5,040

07Greece2.5%3,787

08Türkiye2.4%3,550

Germany alone is a fifth of Zurich’s foreign residents, more than the next two combined, and with Austria the German-speaking share is a quarter — this is a city where a large part of the foreign population arrives already speaking the working language. The rest of the top eight is southern Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal, France and Greece together are another 28.5%. Neither Ukraine (3,423) nor Eritrea (3,427) quite makes the top eight, though both are larger than Türkiye’s neighbours in the list would suggest.

How you can stay

How you can legally enter and stay. These apply across Switzerland.

All requirements & citizenship filter

What you'd pay in taxes

The tax schemes a freelancer can choose from. Rules are national, the same in Zurich as anywhere in Switzerland.

Full schemes & calculator

01Einzelunternehmen — sole proprietorship, city of Zurich (federal + cantonal + communal tax, AHV/IV/EO, KVG)1% of profit (max 1,519/year) (deductible from profit) + rate on the whole profit, by band: 5.4% up to 17,600; 5.5% up to 23,000; 5.6% up to 25,500; 5.7% up to 28,000; 5.9% up to 30,500; 6% up to 33,000; 6.2% up to 35,500; 6.5% up to 38,000; 6.7% up to 40,500; 7% up to 43,000; 7.2% up to 45,500; 7.5% up to 48,000; 7.8% up to 50,500; 8.2% up to 53,000; 8.6% up to 55,500; 9% up to 58,000; 9.3% up to 60,500; 10% above (min 530/year) (deductible from profit)31.0%burden at €60k

See what you would keep

Your income against Switzerland's real tax schemes — the same engine as the full calculator.

Annual gross incomeCurrencyper monthBusiness expenses: 0%

1 Einzelunternehmen — sole proprietorship, city of Zurich (federal + cantonal + communal tax, AHV/IV/EO, KVG)
41,402 EURnet/year
31.0% burden

Who is Zurich for?

The same place reads differently depending on why you move. Each lens pulls the facts that matter most for that plan — with sources, and the trade-offs stated plainly.

Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.

Works in your favour

Internet speed89 Mbps

M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Switzerland

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Median of the 2023 daily country medians over 343 days and 406,505 tests; monthly medians ran 77.8–102.1 Mbps. 2023 is still the latest full year M-Lab's public stats API carries for Switzerland — the 2024 file stops on 26 March. M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads far below Ookla-style figures, so compare it only with other countries in this criterion.

English proficiencyHigh

EF EPI 2025 — Switzerland (rank 30/123, score 564, High band)

Research

Data as of: Nov 1, 2025
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Our band, matching EF's own: 564 points, 30th of 123 countries and up 14 points on the previous edition. Do not read Switzerland as a Nordic-style English country — administration, healthcare and housing run in the local official language, which is German in Zurich and French in Geneva, and the two cities differ sharply in EF's own city scores (Zurich 621, Geneva 555). English gets a professional a long way inside international employers and almost nowhere inside a cantonal office.

Domestic delivery qualityExcellent

Die Schweizerische Post — Finanzbericht 2024 (Zugangspunkte) und My Post 24

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 9, 2026
Method: Inputs: A-Post priority mail must arrive on the working day after posting, everywhere in the country; Swiss Post reports over 5,000 access points in its 2024 financial report, of which about 2,000 are staffed, plus 770 Postomaten, 563 drop-off and collection points in retailers such as Migros, and 14,077 letter boxes; tracking is standard on parcels.
Notes: The one part of the definition Switzerland does not meet on its own terms is the parcel-locker network: 303 My Post 24 terminals for nine million people is thin next to the locker-first markets in this dataset, where the count runs into five figures. What Switzerland has instead is an unusually dense network of STAFFED counters and retail collection points, which does the same job with different opening hours. Rated excellent on speed, coverage and tracking, with that caveat visible rather than averaged away.

Watch-outs

Freelancer tax burden27.8%

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (ESTV federal tariff, § 35 StG Zurich, AHV/IV/EO, BAG-approved KVG premiums)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Scheme ch-einzelfirma-zurich at €60,000 revenue with 10% expenses, converted at the 2026-08-13 ECB rate (1 EUR = 0.9373 CHF) to CHF 56,238 revenue and CHF 50,614 profit. Levies: family-allowance contribution CHF 519 + AHV/IV/EO CHF 3,927 (7.840%, the degressive band that applies below CHF 60,500) + direct federal tax CHF 300 + compulsory KVG health insurance CHF 7,678 + Zurich cantonal and communal tax CHF 3,184 = CHF 15,608 of CHF 56,238 = 27.75%.
Notes: TWO NUMBERS HIDE INSIDE THIS ONE. Swiss income tax at this level is very light — federal tax is CHF 300 on a CHF 50,600 profit — and social contributions are only 7.8% here, because the AHV scale is degressive below CHF 60,500 and the self-employed pay no unemployment or occupational-pension contribution. Nearly half the burden is the compulsory health premium, a flat CHF 7,678 that does not scale with income at all. That makes the Swiss figure unusually sensitive to the profile: at CHF 150,000 of revenue the same scheme comes out at 27.5%, LOWER than at CHF 80,000 (30.6%). It is also a Zurich number: the cantonal and communal share is set by the commune, and other Swiss communes would move this by several points.

Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$2,028/mo

BFS — Haushaltsbudgeterhebung 2023: Haushaltseinkommen und -ausgaben sämtlicher Haushalte, und detaillierte Haushaltsausgaben

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Basket built from the 2023 Swiss household budget survey, per household per month in CHF: food and non-alcoholic drinks 637.76 + restaurants and cafés 427.20 (COICOP 531, excluding the 131.28 spent on accommodation) + service charges and energy of the main residence 271.46 (5712 + 5713, so the utilities without the 1,081.64 of net rent) + household goods and running the home 201.16 + clothing and footwear 160.60 + transport 743.53 + communications 161.81 + recreation, entertainment and culture 488.23 + other goods and services 319.26 = 3,411.01. Divided by the survey's own mean household size of 2.07 persons = CHF 1,647.83 per person per month, converted at 1 CHF = 1.2306 USD (ECB rates of 2026-08-13) = $2,028. Excluded: rent, alcohol and tobacco, out-of-pocket health spending, insurance premiums, taxes and social contributions.
Notes: Two things to hold against this figure. It is a PER-CAPITA share of average household spending, not a measured single-person budget, and a person living alone carries utilities, communications and household costs that a two-person household splits — so a real single in Zurich or Geneva will spend more than this. And it is 2023 data, the latest the survey publishes, with no inflation uplift applied. Health insurance is deliberately outside the basket even though it is compulsory, because it is carried separately by healthcare-private-cost and by the tax burden; add roughly $650/month for it if you want the all-in figure.

Relocating with a partner and school-age children.

Works in your favour

Homicide rate0.5/100k

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: 0.50 per 100,000 in 2024, at the very bottom of the European range and stable: the series has moved between 0.48 and 0.71 every year since 2008 with no trend.

Air quality (PM2.5)8.3 µg/m³

Umwelt- und Gesundheitsschutz Zürich — daily air-quality measurements since 1983 (open data, CC0)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Unweighted mean of the 2025 annual means of the city’s four PM2.5 stations, computed from the published validated daily values: Heubeeribüel 7.00, Rosengartenstrasse 8.60, Schimmelstrasse 8.91, Stampfenbachstrasse 8.57 µg/m³. Coverage is 99–100% of days at every station.
Notes: A genuinely clean year on a complete record — every station sits below the EU limit of 25 µg/m³ and above the WHO guideline of 5. The spread is the traffic signal: the two roadside stations (Rosengartenstrasse, Schimmelstrasse) read about 1.6 µg/m³ higher than the parkland station on the Zürichberg, so the number you breathe depends on which street you live on.

Watch-outs

Private healthcare cost$8,437/yr

BAG/priminfo — approved 2026 premiums of compulsory health insurance, full report (gesamtbericht_ch.xlsx)

Official source

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Median of the 1,032 approved 2026 premiums across 34 insurers for an adult (age class 26+) on the standard model with free choice of doctor, the lowest CHF 300 franchise and accident cover included: CHF 571.35/month = CHF 6,856/year = $8,437 at 1 CHF = 1.2306 USD (ECB rates of 2026-08-13). Not a sample of three quotes — Switzerland approves and publishes every premium, so this is the whole population of them.
Notes: Switzerland is the one country in this dataset where the 'private insurance' figure is not optional: KVG/LAMal basic cover is a legal duty for every resident, so this number is a bill, not a choice, and it is already counted inside the freelancer tax burden. It buys more than the criterion asks for — there is no benefit ceiling at all, where the criterion assumes ~$100k. It is also the maximum-price configuration: the official enrolment-weighted average premium actually paid by adults in 2026 is CHF 465.30/month ($6,873/year) because most people take a restricted-choice model and a higher franchise, and the cheapest standard-model quote in the country is CHF 70/month lower than the median. City medians on the same basis: Zurich CHF 639.80/month, Bern CHF 681.50, Geneva CHF 752.20 — Geneva costs 18% more than Zurich for the same legal cover.

International schoolsno verified data

IB World Schools directory

Official source

Data as of: Sep 8, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Not counted. This criterion requires verification against the accreditors’ own registries rather than aggregator sites, and the IB directory’s school SEARCH is behind a bot challenge we do not bypass — individual school profiles are readable, but you cannot enumerate a city from them. Zurich certainly has several IB and other accredited international schools; publishing a number we could not derive from the registry would be a guess.

Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.

Works in your favour

Crypto regulationLegal friendly

ESTV — Kryptowährungen: Besteuerung (Arbeitspapier zu Kryptowährungen und Initial Coin/Token Offerings)

Official source

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: Holding and trading are legal and the tax treatment is published rather than improvised: the Federal Tax Administration's working paper sets out that gains realised by a private individual managing private assets are TAX-FREE capital gains (Art. 16 Abs. 3 DBG), while the holding itself is subject to the annual wealth tax at its 31 December market value, and losses are correspondingly non-deductible. The exemption is not unconditional — where the scale, financing and frequency of trading go beyond private wealth management the activity is reclassified as self-employment and the gains become taxable income, which is the line to watch if you trade actively. Mining and staking rewards are income, not exempt gains.

Financial control levelLow

Bundesgesetz über die Bekämpfung der Geldwäscherei und der Terrorismusfinanzierung (GwG, SR 955.0)

Official source

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Inputs weighed: no exchange or capital controls on the movement of personal funds in or out of the country; no general legal ceiling on cash payments, only anti-money-laundering due-diligence duties on dealers and financial intermediaries under the GwG; residents declare worldwide income and worldwide net wealth in the annual cantonal return, and Switzerland exchanges account information automatically under the OECD standard.
Notes: Low control over the movement of money, but not low visibility. Two things surprise newcomers: the annual return asks for your WORLDWIDE assets, because the cantons levy a wealth tax on net assets, so there is a reporting duty here that most countries do not have; and opening an account is easy for a resident but often refused or heavily priced for non-residents, so 'Swiss bank account' is not something you arrange before you move.

Watch-outs

Freelancer tax burden27.8%

SettleMetric tax engine over official 2026 rules (ESTV federal tariff, § 35 StG Zurich, AHV/IV/EO, BAG-approved KVG premiums)

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Jan 1, 2026
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Scheme ch-einzelfirma-zurich at €60,000 revenue with 10% expenses, converted at the 2026-08-13 ECB rate (1 EUR = 0.9373 CHF) to CHF 56,238 revenue and CHF 50,614 profit. Levies: family-allowance contribution CHF 519 + AHV/IV/EO CHF 3,927 (7.840%, the degressive band that applies below CHF 60,500) + direct federal tax CHF 300 + compulsory KVG health insurance CHF 7,678 + Zurich cantonal and communal tax CHF 3,184 = CHF 15,608 of CHF 56,238 = 27.75%.
Notes: TWO NUMBERS HIDE INSIDE THIS ONE. Swiss income tax at this level is very light — federal tax is CHF 300 on a CHF 50,600 profit — and social contributions are only 7.8% here, because the AHV scale is degressive below CHF 60,500 and the self-employed pay no unemployment or occupational-pension contribution. Nearly half the burden is the compulsory health premium, a flat CHF 7,678 that does not scale with income at all. That makes the Swiss figure unusually sensitive to the profile: at CHF 150,000 of revenue the same scheme comes out at 27.5%, LOWER than at CHF 80,000 (30.6%). It is also a Zurich number: the cantonal and communal share is set by the commune, and other Swiss communes would move this by several points.

Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.

Works in your favour

Homicide rate0.5/100k

Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2024
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Notes: 0.50 per 100,000 in 2024, at the very bottom of the European range and stable: the series has moved between 0.48 and 0.71 every year since 2008 with no trend.

Air quality (PM2.5)8.3 µg/m³

Umwelt- und Gesundheitsschutz Zürich — daily air-quality measurements since 1983 (open data, CC0)

Official source

Data as of: Dec 31, 2025
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Unweighted mean of the 2025 annual means of the city’s four PM2.5 stations, computed from the published validated daily values: Heubeeribüel 7.00, Rosengartenstrasse 8.60, Schimmelstrasse 8.91, Stampfenbachstrasse 8.57 µg/m³. Coverage is 99–100% of days at every station.
Notes: A genuinely clean year on a complete record — every station sits below the EU limit of 25 µg/m³ and above the WHO guideline of 5. The spread is the traffic signal: the two roadside stations (Rosengartenstrasse, Schimmelstrasse) read about 1.6 µg/m³ higher than the parkland station on the Zürichberg, so the number you breathe depends on which street you live on.

Watch-outs

Climate comfort5/12 mo

NOAA/WMO Climate Normals 1991–2020 — station ZUERICH / FLUNTERN (WMO 06660, 556 m)

Open data

Data as of: Dec 31, 2020
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Months whose 1991–2020 normals have a mean daily maximum between 15 °C and 28 °C and under 150 mm of precipitation: May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep. Computed from the climate-normals stored alongside.

Cost of living (single, excl. rent)$2,028/mo

BFS — Haushaltsbudgeterhebung 2023: Haushaltseinkommen und -ausgaben sämtlicher Haushalte, und detaillierte Haushaltsausgaben

Curated by SettleMetric

Data as of: Dec 31, 2023
Verified: Sep 8, 2026
Method: Basket built from the 2023 Swiss household budget survey, per household per month in CHF: food and non-alcoholic drinks 637.76 + restaurants and cafés 427.20 (COICOP 531, excluding the 131.28 spent on accommodation) + service charges and energy of the main residence 271.46 (5712 + 5713, so the utilities without the 1,081.64 of net rent) + household goods and running the home 201.16 + clothing and footwear 160.60 + transport 743.53 + communications 161.81 + recreation, entertainment and culture 488.23 + other goods and services 319.26 = 3,411.01. Divided by the survey's own mean household size of 2.07 persons = CHF 1,647.83 per person per month, converted at 1 CHF = 1.2306 USD (ECB rates of 2026-08-13) = $2,028. Excluded: rent, alcohol and tobacco, out-of-pocket health spending, insurance premiums, taxes and social contributions.
Notes: Two things to hold against this figure. It is a PER-CAPITA share of average household spending, not a measured single-person budget, and a person living alone carries utilities, communications and household costs that a two-person household splits — so a real single in Zurich or Geneva will spend more than this. And it is 2023 data, the latest the survey publishes, with no inflation uplift applied. Health insurance is deliberately outside the basket even though it is compulsory, because it is carried separately by healthcare-private-cost and by the tax burden; add roughly $650/month for it if you want the all-in figure.