City Ranking
Last update: September 13, 2024
Topics
Where is the best place to live in Switzerland? While answering this question, opinions are likely to diverge strongly. With the aim of identifying the most liveable cities in Switzerland, Wüest Partner developed the City Ranking, a systematic analysis of Switzerland’s 162 statistical cities, for the first time in 2009. This year it was carried out once again, for the 13th time.
In the ranking, cities are assessed based on eleven criteria, including the labour market, education, security, social factors and purchasing power. The results, together with interesting additional information, are published in the current July issue of Bilanz. You can also view the current ranking (as well as the results from previous years), compared with the housing costs for owner-occupied flats or the share of affordable rental flats, on the platform: https://www.städteranking.ch.
Top 3
As in previous years, the city of Zurich takes first place. Switzerland’s most populous city particularly stands out in the areas of mobility, health, labour market and education. Second place goes to the city of Zug. Compared to other Swiss cities, it scores particularly well on population dynamics, shopping facilities and recreational value, while tax advantages also contribute to the high attractiveness of the municipality. The city of Bern takes third place, particularly standing out in terms of its labour market and diverse cultural and leisure offerings.
Top 10
Also in the top ten are the cities of Winterthur (4), Basel (5), Aarau (6), Geneva (7), Lucerne (8), Uster (9) and Lausanne (10), all of which occupied the top 10 last year as well.
Biggest climbers
Among the biggest climbers in this year’s ranking are many agglomeration municipalities of the major centres. Out of the cities in western Switzerland, the most impressive leaps were made by Bussigny-près-Lausanne and Pully, located near the city of Lausanne, as well as the municipalities of Meyrin and Lancy in the Geneva agglomeration. Among German-speaking Swiss cities, Ostermundigen (Bern agglomeration), Binningen (Basel agglomeration) and Küsnacht ZH (Zurich agglomeration) are among the biggest winners.
Explanation
- The Bilanz City Ranking was developed by Wüest Partner in 2009.
- It’s aim is to make all cities as comparable as possible through systematic analysis. The result is a collection of statements on quality of life.
- Each city is evaluated in relation to all the other ones. This means a city can only improve in the ranking if it has improved proportionally more than the other cities.
Methodology
- Wüest Partner calculated the quality of life in 162 Swiss cities based on eleven criteria (labour market; population and housing; education and training; culture and leisure; recreation, shopping infrastructure; health and safety; social affairs; mobility; tax attractiveness, purchasing power and health insurance premiums; special features of the city). These eleven criteria are in turn made up of 115 individual variables. All eleven criteria are equally weighted.
- 162 statistical cities in Switzerland, as defined by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), were examined. The FSO’s definition is based on density and size criteria (population and jobs).