There are – relatively speaking – few American citizens who settle in Switzerland for good, but those who do, tend to live predominantly in four cantons.
To determine just how many Americans lived in Switzerland in 2025 – the latest year for which data is available – The Local looked at two different sets of numbers.
The first was Eurostat – the statistical office of the European Union – and then, data from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).
Here are the findings: according to Eurostat, 4,583 US citizens took up a first time residency permit in Switzerland in 2025.
Eurostat’s data includes all first-time residence permits valid for at least three months, regardless of the reason for immigration, including short-term stays of less than a year.
According to the Swiss statistics body SEM some 2,425 Americans nationals became permanent residents in Switzerland in 2025. We know more about these 2,425 US nationals, in particular why they moved to Switzerland and where in the country they moved to.
According to SEM’s data, the majority (1,184) of Americans came here for family reasons – which will include many so-called trailing spouses.
The second largest group, 662, arrived for education or training purposes.
Next – some 480 Americans – came for employment under the quota system reserved for non-EU/EFTA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) nationals.
READ MORE: Switzerland’s 2026 permit quotas for non-EU nationals
Where do most Americans live in Switzerland?
Again based on SEM’s data, the most ‘international’ cantons, which are also where most jobs for foreign nationals are located, are hubs for American citizens:
Zurich: 667 US citizens
Aside from banks like the UBS, as well as the Swiss division of Google, Zurich also boasts one of the world’s top universities, the ETH on which, according to the university itself “the US has a strong institutional footprint” – both in terms of teaching staff and doctoral positions.
Vaud: 436
Switzerland’s largest company, Nestlé has a sprawling presence in a small (population about 20,000) town of Vevey.
Located on the shore of Lake Geneva, the town is also known as the place where Charlie Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life, and whose mansion is now a museum dedicated to his work.
Other big multinationals headquartered in Vaud are cigarette producer Philip Morris International, which employs 3,000 people in Lausanne, as well as Medtronic, a global producer of medical devices, whose European headquarters (and 750 employees) are located in a village of Tolochenaz.
READ MORE: What we know about the American community in Switzerland
Geneva: 361
Aside from some private banks, as well as Rolex watches, Geneva is also headquarters to multinationals like grain trader Cargill International and Procter & Gamble consumer goods – not to mention the UN agencies.
Basel-City:158
Two large Swiss healthcare companies — Roche and Novartis — are based in this city, which is unofficially known as the pharma capital of Switzerland.
Roche employs 13,6000 people in its core diagnostics and pharmaceutical divisions, while 8,000 people work on Novartis’ site, to which the company refers to as a “campus.”
Many of them are US citizens – including Novartis’ CEO.
Zug: 125
The tiny canton of Zug has a high concentration of multinational companies, the largest of which is the mining giant, Glencore.
Other well-known corporations in the canton are appliance manufacturer Siemens, as well as a healthcare firm Johnson & Johnson.
What about other cantons?
Here’s the full list with the number of American citizens who became permanent residents in the canton in brackets.
Aargau (49), Appenzell Innerrhoden (1), Appenzell Ausserrhoden (1), Basel-Country (50), Bern (120), Fribourg (20), Glarus (4), Graubünden (21), Jura (9), Lucerne (81), Neuchâtel (21), Nidwalden (2), Obwalden (3), St. Gallen (57), Schaffhausen (16), Solothurn (22), Schwyz (13), Thurgau (11), Ticino, (113) , Uri (3), and Valais (65).
