Subjective well-being and living conditions

How satisfied are persons living in Switzerland with their current life, their financial situation, and their personal relationships? Which population groups are most satisfied? Is subjective well-being smaller or greater in Switzerland than in the rest of Europe?
The indicators of subjective well-being are designed to answer these questions and to expand upon and complement the objective indicators on the population’s living conditions. They are regularly updated (usually once a year) for the following areas:

• Subjective well-being in Switzerland and in Europe
In 2021, 36.8% of the population in Switzerland said they were very satisfied with their current life.
Different aspects, in particular people’s financial situation, personal relationships, state of health and working conditions, are analysed.
Detailed results can be found on the Subjective well-being in Switzerland and in Europe page in the navigation panel on the left.

• Subjective assessment of the financial situation
In 2021, only 9.5% of people in Switzerland said they had difficulties or great difficulties in making ends meet, compared with 18.3% in Europe (EU).
Detailed results can be found on the Subjective assessment of the financial situation page in the navigation panel on the left.

• Politics
In 2021, the level of trust in the police and in the judicial and political systems was high overall. 69.0% of the population said they had a high level of trust in the police, 60.5% in the judicial system and 52.3% in the political system.
Other aspects are analysed, such as interest in politics, frequency of participation in federal votes, political orientation and opinion on equal opportunities for the Swiss and the foreign population living in Switzerland.
Detailed results can be found on the Politics page (available in French, German and Italian).

• Participation in social and cultural life
In 2021, 95.8% of the Swiss population have someone to ask for moral, material or financial help. Data on participation in associations are also presented.
Detailed results can be found on the Social and cultural participation page (available in French, German and Italian).

• Health
Almost three quarters of the Swiss population felt happy most or all of the time in 2021. 3.9% rated their health as poor or very poor. This is fewer than in any other country in Europe. Both educational attainment and income influence physical and mental well-being.

Other indicators measuring the inequality in income distribution, poverty as well as material and social deprivation complete the analysis of individual well-being (see “Related topics” below).

Detailed analysis of subjective well-being and living conditions

In addition to regularly updating the main indicators, the FSO conducts detailed analyses on subjective well-being and living conditions, dedicated to specific topics (see also “Additional information / Publications”):

Multiple precarity

The grouping of indicators for precarity reveals great differences depending on the type of household in which people live. Persons in single-parent households are particularly disadvantaged, both in terms of their financial situation, insecure housing conditions and material and social deprivation as well as regarding their dissatisfaction with regard to their personal relationships or their current life.

In Switzerland in 2021, 18.9% of the population was unable to pay for an unexpected expense of CHF 2,500 within one month. Persons living in single-parent households are by far the most affected (40.9%). 25.2% of persons living alone aged under 65 and 20.7% of persons living in a couple with children are affected by this type of financial difficulty. Only 9.3% of persons aged under 65 living in a couple without children are affected.

With regard to another aspect of financial precarity, less than a fifth (18.5%) of people in single-parent households say that they have trouble making ends meet. This also concerns 13.0% of persons living alone aged under 65 and 9.8% of households comprised of a couple with children. Only 5.5% of persons aged under 65 living in a couple without children say they have this type of difficulty. Altogether, 9.5% of the population in Switzerland lives in a household that declared it had problems in making ends meet.

People living in a single-parent household and persons living alone aged under 65 are more likely to live in overcrowded accommodation (12.8% and 10.6% respectively). People living in a couple with children and persons aged under 65 living in a couple without children are by contrast less often affected (6.6% and 1.4%).

Furthermore, persons living in a single-parent family are almost twice as likely (22.6%) to be unable to afford one week holiday away from home at least once a year as persons living alone aged under 65 (12.4%) and almost three times more likely than couples with children (7.8%). Only 4.4% of couples aged under 65 without children cannot afford a week’s holiday.

With regard to subjective well-being, persons aged 16 and over living in single-parent households are less satisfied with their current life and their personal relationships than couples with or without children.

Although the financial situation of persons aged under 65 who live alone is less difficult than that of persons in single-parent households, both household types share their level of dissatisfaction with regard to their personal relationships and their current life: 22.8% of persons aged under 65 who live alone and 20.8% of single-parent households are not or only quite satisfied with their personal relationships (score of 0 to 7 out of 10) and respectively 49.3% and 47.0% of them are not or only quite satisfied with their current life.

How are people with a migration background doing in Switzerland?

The report examines the extent to which the quality of life of people with a migration background in Switzerland differs from that of people without a migration background and other population groups.

The foreign citizens from Eastern Europe and Non-European countries emerge as a particularly disadvantaged group: they are confronted with problems in almost all areas of life and cumulate significantly more objective and subjective problems than the population as a whole. Of all the analyzed population groups, the unemployed, the low-income and those without post-compulsory education are the most disadvantaged.

How is the middle income group faring?

There can be quite substantial differences in the actual living situations within the middle income group. The upper middle group shows generally a rather high quality of life in 2013, whereas the lower middle group faced some deficiencies in various domains, especially with respect to the financial situation, to education and, in some cases, to the quality of housing. One in four faced financial difficulties in the lower middle group, while this figure was only one in ten for the upper middle. Among the lower middle group, social contacts were considerably fewer and trust in Switzerland’s political and legal systems far lower than among the upper middle.

For detailed information, see the report «Comment se porte la classe moyenne?» (available in French and German).

Further information

Tables only available in French, German and Italian.

All graphs on the topic Social situation, well-being and poverty

All press releases on the topic Social situation, well-being and poverty

The following report is only available in French, German and Italian.

Statistical sources and concepts

Surveys

On this topic

Subjective well-being in Switzerland and in Europe

Subjective evaluation of the quality of life in Switzerland and in Europe according to different areas such as current life or leisure activities

Subjective assessment of financial situation

Subjective assessment of the financial situation of households in Switzerland and in Europe