Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
There are more and more of you! The latest statistics show that the number of Swiss Abroad has exceeded 838,000 people. If you had to guess, in which foreign country are there by far the most people with a Swiss passport?
Also today, we find out exactly how much the Swiss love their democracy.
Happy reading!
At the end of 2025, there were 838,600 Swiss nationals living abroad, an increase of 1.4% compared to a year earlier. This represents an increase of 11,900 people. If the Swiss Abroad were a canton, it would be the fourth most populous after Zurich, Bern and Vaud.
According to data from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), half of the Swiss diaspora lives in a neighbouring country, with France by far the most popular. A total of 212,400 Swiss nationals live in France (if French overseas territories are included, this number rises to almost 214,000), slightly more than twice as many as in Germany (102,100), the second most popular country. This is followed by the United States (85,900) and Italy (53,100).
The Swiss community is highly represented in areas close to the border. In Haute-Savoie, which borders Geneva, for example, it represents 6% of the total population of Swiss Abroad in France.
Compared to 2024, the number of people with Swiss passports has increased in all parts of the world: 3% in Asia, 1.5% in Europe, 1.1% in North America, 1% in Oceania, 0.6% in Africa and 0.3% in Latin America and the Caribbean. The FSO highlights three notable increases: Austria (+2.1%), Spain (+3.1%) and Liechtenstein (+6.4%).
“You love me, but how much do you love me?” If the Swiss people were asked about democracy, the answer could be extremely precise, thanks to a survey published yesterday.
In no other country in the world do citizens participate as intensively in political decisions as in Switzerland, going to the ballot box four times a year to approve or reject government and parliamentary decisions (referendums) or proposals not originating from the authorities (popular initiatives).
Of those with voting rights in Switzerland, 77.5% say they are fairly or very satisfied with Swiss democracy, reveals the study commissioned by the Swiss Public Utility Society. Looking at party affiliation, the most sceptical are voters for the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, with 35.5% saying they are rather or very dissatisfied, followed by supporters of the left-wing Social Democratic Party (22.2%). The least dissatisfied electorate (10%) are those who vote for the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party.
It is interesting to note that 70.7% of those who rarely, if ever, take part in votes consider the Swiss model satisfactory. According to Marc Bühlmann, director of Année Politique Suisse, this is a positive sign: the motivation of a majority of those who do not go to the polls lies in confidence in the system and its results, not in the conviction that their vote is of no use, he told Swiss public broadcaster SRF.
The situation around the former military depot in Mitholz, in the Bernese Oberland, is more complex than previously estimated, and the site can no longer be used for cultivation, according to a report by the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO).
In December 1947 explosions destroyed the ammunition depot in the Kandertal. Nine people died and it is estimated that up to 3,500 tonnes of ammunition and several hundred kilograms of explosives are still buried in the area.
In 2018, the explosion risk posed by these residues was found to be higher than previously assumed. For the clean-up, the Federal Assembly approved a credit of CHF2.59 billion ($3.24 billion) in September 2023.
However, new soil investigations have shown that the munitions are partly distributed deeper and over a larger area than initially estimated, the document published on Monday states. As a result, the plan is to remove the residues from the soil to such an extent as to allow farming and grazing without danger, but not cultivation.
With current technology, the munitions can be reliably detected and removed to a depth of about 30 centimetres. The remaining material will remain buried. Deeper clearance would in any case spoil the quality of the soil, the SFAO said.
Cyber threats are on the rise in Switzerland and are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated, according to a report by the Federal Office of Cybersecurity.
A robotic voice declares in English: “This call is from the Swiss police.” If you have a Swiss phone number, there is a good chance that you have heard these words when answering your mobile phone recently. That there is no real Swiss police officer on the other end of the phone is immediately clear, and not just from the accent. This is in fact one of the most widespread voice phishing scams, i.e. telephone fraud in which criminals use voice calls or automated messages to manipulate victims and steal sensitive data.
This type of cyberattack intensified in Switzerland in 2025. The Federal Office of Cybersecurity (FOCS) collected 64,733 reports last year (up 3% compared to 2024), 55% of which concerned fraud attempts similar to the one in this example.
FOCS Director Florian Schütz points out that cybercrime is increasingly using AI, but in the future artificial intelligence could also provide tools for defence. Currently, however, the fight is unequal. “The attacker has to find one place to attack, the defender has to protect them all,” Schütz says.
Translated using AI/amva/ts
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