Long-term health problems

Relevance/Result

Included in the MEHM (Minimum European Health Module, a module incorporated into European health surveys), this is an indicator linked to chronic diseases. Suffering from a chronic disease or a long-term health problem may have considerable negative consequences on social integration.

In 2019, 28% of the Swiss permanent resident population aged 15 or over suffered from long-term health problems. The population with a migration background suffered less than the population without a migration background: the first generation had a rate of 27%, the second or subsequent generations 23%, while the population without a migration background had a rate of 29%.

Trends over time

From 2012 to 2019, there was an increase in long-term health problems in the total population and the population with a migration background (respectively 11.0 and +1.4 percentage points). The increase is not significant in the other population groups.

Canton

In most cantons, the population without a migration background had more long-term health problems than those with a migration background. This difference is significant in the cantons of Zurich, Schaffhausen, Vaud and Geneva.

Definitions

Share of persons saying that they suffered from a chronic or long-term disease or health problem, i.e. minimum of 6 months.

You can access the indicators in one of the following ways

All indicators

Some 68 indicators describe the current situation and changes in the integration of the population with a migration background and/or of foreign nationals in Switzerland in eleven areas of life in our society.

Key indicators

34 key indicators provide an overview of the progress made on the journey towards integration and the state of integration of the population with a migration background. If this information is lacking, the population is shown by nationality, and where this variable is available, the country of birth.