Heat pumps increasingly replacing oil-fired heating in Switzerland

Heat pumps are increasingly replacing oil-fired heating Keystone-SDA

A quarter of buildings in Switzerland were fitted with heat pumps by the end of 2025. Heating oil remains the main source of energy for heating, but its share is falling, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said on Tuesday.

As at December 31, the country had a total of 1.8 million residential buildings and 4.88 million dwellings, according to the FSO. More than one million of these buildings were detached houses, and 55% of them were occupied by just one or two people.

Half of these residential buildings were heated using fossil fuels. Heating oil, accounting for 33%, remains the main source of energy, although this figure has seen a “steady decline” over the last 40 years.

And 17% of buildings were heated by gas. This proportion varies greatly by region: gas heating accounted for 29% of dwellings in urban municipalities and only 4% in rural municipalities.

Surge in heat pumps

The proportion of buildings connected to a heat pump (25%), meanwhile, has soared: it has increased sixfold since 2000 and now accounts for three-quarters of properties built over the last decade. Nearly a third of detached houses (30%) were fitted with a heat pump.

Furthermore, 12% of buildings were heated with wood and 7% with electricity.

The situation is slightly different when looking at households: in 2025, 58% of households in Switzerland were heated using fossil fuels (32% with heating oil and 25% with gas) and 22% with a heat pump.

Average floor area: 102m²

The FSO also points out that the average living space per person was 46.6m². This figure had risen steadily until 2021 and has remained stable since then. The Lake Geneva region is below the national average, at 42.5m². Residents in Eastern Switzerland (49.7m²) and Ticino (49.8m²) have the largest living space per person.

The average floor area of an occupied dwelling is 102m². More than half (54%) of all dwellings have three or four rooms.

The average floor area of residential buildings is 174m². It has risen steadily for new-builds since 2000. Residential blocks built over the last ten years have an average floor area of 231m².

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Translated from French, reviewed by an English Department journalist.