Age-specific fertility rate

The fertility rates of women by age are compared in order to observe differences and similarities. It is less an indicator of integration than of assimilation, the measure of which shows the demographic context and the different challenges that the population groups are confronted with in organising their family life. For example, in the political and social climate of Switzerland today, a woman who has her children when she is young will encounter more obstacles in training and education and in building up a career.

In 2018, fertility rates before the age of 30 were higher among women born abroad than among those born in Switzerland. Between the ages of 15 and 19, it was almost six times higher (1‰ compared with more than 5‰). The trend was reversed between the ages of 35 and 44, with the exception of 35-39-year old foreign-born foreign mothers who always had higher fertility rates than Swiss-born foreign mothers.

Overall, the differences in female fertility rates between foreign nationals and Swiss nationals born in Switzerland accounted for fewer than 30 children per 1000 women in Switzerland. The fertility rates of foreign nationals aged 20 and 29 were higher than those of Swiss nationals. This trend is reversed among mothers aged 30 to 39. The same trends could be observed in each canton with larger or smaller differences. The largest differences were to be found in the canton of Fribourg in the age group 35-39, with almost 90 more children born to foreign nationals than to Swiss nationals born in Switzerland.  

In the cantons of Graubünden, Schwytz and Neuchâtel, between the ages of 20 and 29, female Swiss nationals born in Switzerland had higher fertility rates than foreign nationals born in Switzerland. Between 30 and 39, in the cantons of Ticino, Vaud, Schwytz, Fribourg, Basel-Landschaft and Valais, female foreign nationals born in Switzerland had higher fertility rates than Swiss nationals born in Switzerland.