Most important problems in Switzerland 2023

The biggest worry for people in Switzerland in 2023 was health insurance premiums, with 56 percent of people citing this as their largest concern. Climate change, pensions, and the relationship between Switzerland and the EU rounded off the top four concerns.

Climate change

Climate change ranked as the second leading worry for the Swiss. Around 71 percent of people living in Switzerland believe that their region will be severely affected by global warming in the next ten years. In some cases, this could even impact livelihoods, especially those in fields like agriculture or tourism, if the change in weather is drastic enough. This is a view reflected all over the world, with over 70 percent of people from all age groups also believing that climate change will alter the environment in which they live. Politically, global warming has been a hotly contested topic over the past few years, with some politicians denying its existence entirely and others desperately trying to reverse the damage already done to the planet. The climate crisis has also been ranked as the most severe global risk the world will face in ten years, according to more than 1,000 experts in academia, business, and politics. This highlights the seriousness of the problem and suggests that it will still be causing stress for the population in years to come.

Stress and anxiety

According to a study on stress in selected European countries, Switzerland ranked as the country that struggled the least after the COVID-19 pandemic, with 10 percent of people having difficulties, compared with the United Kingdom, where 24 percent of people reported struggling with day-to-day life. Although comparatively, Switzerland appears not to be as affected in terms of mental health as some of its European counterparts after the pandemic, this does not mean that stress and anxiety are not a problem. As in every country, there are still people suffering with mental health problems. Around 12 percent of people in Switzerland reported suffering from depression.

What are the problems causing the most worry for you in Switzerland?

Characteristic	Share of respondents
Health issues / health insurance / premiums	40%
Environmental protection / climate change / environmental disasters	38%
Retirement provisions	32%
Relationship with Europe, EU, framework agreement, access to the European market	26%
Energy issues (electricity supply, renewable energy, nuclear energy)	26%
Foreign nationals / freedom of movement / immigration	23%
Inflation / currency devaluation / price increases	22%
Increased housing costs, increase in rents	22%
Refugees / asylum issues	20%
Social security / securing social welfare systems	15%
War in Ukraine	13%
Security of supply of important goods (e.g. medicines, food)	12%
Living together in Switzerland / tolerance	11%
Low wages	11%
Loss of neutrality	11%
New poverty / poverty among younger generations	10%
School and education system / educational reforms	10%
Traffic issues / traffic jams / future of mobility	10%
Racism / xenophobia	10%
Personal security / crime / violence	9%

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Release date

November 2023

More information

Region

Switzerland

Survey time period

August 7 to September 14, 2023

Number of respondents

1,551 respondents

Special properties

Voters with a residence in Switzerland

Supplementary notes

The source does not provide the original wording of the question posed during the survey. The wording of the question chosen for this statistic may therefore differ slightly from the original.

The respondents could rank each topic on a scale of one (totally no worries) to five (very big worries). No answer was possible. The values from seven to ten on the scale were classed as big and very big worries.

The statistic only shows the top two boxes 'big worries' as well as 'very big worries'.

Values were rounded for a better understanding of the statistic.

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