Swiss live long, work hard and help others
At 82.2 years, the Swiss have the second highest life expectancy in OECD countries, while health spending is third highest, at 10.7 per cent of GDP.
These are among the results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Society at a Glance survey which gives an overview of social trends and policy developments.
Switzerland has the highest proportion of working-age people in the workforce, at 79.2 per cent, and Swiss workers retire later than the OECD average.
With an average of 55 per cent of people volunteering time, giving money or helping a stranger in the previous month, the Swiss ranked sixth for engagement in social issues in the OECD, well above the OECD average of 39 per cent.
One in four Swiss are foreign-born, the highest in the OECD after Luxembourg and Israel and more than double the OECD average of 11.7 per cent.
Despite its much lauded democratic tradition, Switzerland (48 per cent) is one of only three countries in the 39-country survey, along with the United States and South Korea, with voter participation below 50 per cent.
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