Number of single-person households triples in Switzerland

The make-up of Swiss households is changing. Keystone / Luis Berg

At the end of 2022, there will be around four million private households in Switzerland. More than a third of them are inhabited by just one person.

Just under 30% of households each comprise couples without children and couples with at least one child under 25. The average household has 2.18 persons.

Thus, 17% of the resident population lives in one-person households, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday. Since 1970, the number of these households has more than tripled. Over the same period, the number of households with children under 25 has remained stable.

In the vast majority of households with children under 25, parents live together as a couple. Single-parent households account for about one-sixth of households with children.

In 73% of couple households with children, the parents are married couples. In one-tenth, the parents live in a consensual partnership. Same-sex couples with children account for 0.1%.

The traditional household form of the married couple with one or more children is most widespread in central Switzerland. Non-traditional household forms are more common in western Switzerland and in the urban canton of Basel City. The cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel and Vaud have the highest number of single-parent households.

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