Emigration today – mobile Swiss

The most popular countries to emigrate to are in Europe – France and Germany – with the USA in third position. Apart from these traditional emigration destinations, places such as Thailand are becoming increasingly popular. Advice on emigration and stays abroad can be found on the FDFA website: Living abroad.

At the end of August 2017, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) published the figures on Swiss emigration in 2016. These are part of the statistics on population movement, which cover immigration to and emigration from Switzerland.

In contrast, the FDFA’s statistics on the Swiss Abroad provide information on the number of Swiss citizens registered with Swiss representations abroad at the end of the year. Changes compared to the previous year in these population statistics are due to new registrations, de-registrations as well as births, deaths and naturalisations.

In cooperation with the FSO, both sets of statistics – emigration of Swiss citizens (see legend on right) and statistics on the Swiss Abroad (see colours of the countries on the map) – have been visualised in the form of a graphic. A detailed map of Europe is shown on the FDFA’s website under Living abroad – Publications and statistics.

Swiss people choose to emigrate for a wide variety of personal reasons. Some set off to study, for a job or for love, while others decide to spend their latter years in a warmer climate. Neither the statistics nor this graphic can provide information on these key life decisions.

Overview map as PDF (627 KB)