Young Swiss reveal hopes and fears

Swiss teenagers and young adults are at home in the cyberworld, like going to parties and clubs, but are also health-conscious and appreciate public transport.

These are some of the findings in a survey of 16 to 25 year olds in Switzerland, published on Sunday on the Credit Suisse bank’s online magazine.

The survey revealed that 62 per cent view saw their own future “fairly optimistically”, with only four per cent seeing it as “rather bleak”, although they were much more pessimistic about society as a whole, where 25 per cent viewed the future rather bleakly.

On their future plans, 73 per cent said they wanted a career, 85 per cent said they aimed to own their own house or apartment and 52 per cent knew they wanted to have children.

Although 75 per cent said they were ready to go abroad to improve their career prospects and 70 per cent would like to work in international companies, when it came to foreigners in Switzerland 63 per cent said relations between young people and foreigners were “fairly tense”, and 43 per cent predicted that they would get worse. On the other hand, 89 per cent have foreigners among their friends.

The study was carried out by the gfs.bern research institute between August and October. The institute conducted the survey on line, after contacting the respondents by phone. A total of 1,011 young people resident in Switzerland took part.

Credit Suisse has published a “worry barometer” of Swiss citizens for more than 30 years, but this is the first time young people have been specifically targeted.