Poverty in Switzerland
overview of poverty in Switzerland
Poverty in Switzerland refers to people who are living in relative poverty in Switzerland. In 2018, 7.9% of the population or some 660,000 people in Switzerland were affected by income poverty. Switzerland has also a significant number of working poor, estimated at 145,000 in 2015.
Historically, Switzerland has been a poor country, especially the Alpine regions. From the 17th century, incipient industrialisation brought wealth to the cities, particularly to Zürich, but rural areas remained destitute well into the 19th century, causing the peasant war in 1653, and later forcing families to emigrate both to Russia and the Americas (including to Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Guatemala, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela).
In the 20th century, the economy of modern Switzerland came to establish itself among the world's most prosperous and stable, and in terms of human development index (at 0.962) Switzerland ranks first worldwide. As of 2019, Switzerland had the highest average wealth per adult, at $564,653.
According to the 2026-figures from the Federal Statistical Office, 8.4% of the population lives on less than the subsistence level, compared to 6.7% in 2014, which is slightly lower than the record rate of 8.7% reached in 2019 and 2021.
General statistics on income and wealth
In 2013 the mean household income in Switzerland was CHF 120,624 (c. USD 134,000 nominal, US$101,000 PPP), the mean household income after social security, taxes and mandatory health insurance was CHF 85,560 (c.
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This entry incorporates text from “Poverty in Switzerland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.