Each year, some 40,000 people move away from Switzerland’s largest city, Zurich, and 55 percent are foreign nationals, new municipal figures show.
Many of the 40,000 people who leave Zurich are young and high earners, and more than half of them are foreigners, according to a new analysis released by the city on January 16th.
What else do these figures reveal?
Those moving away only lived briefly in Zurich
Families move away significantly less often than couples or single people.
Of those who left, 67 percent lived alone, in shared apartments, or in two-person households.
Only 28 percent were families, and 4 percent were single-parent households. However, the number of families moving within the city was high, at 39 percent.
The short length of stay of many of those who moved away “is striking,” the analysis concluded.
Of those, 77 percent had been in Zurich for less than five years, and 33 percent for less than a year.
What about foreign nationals?
Of those leaving the area, more than half – 55 percent – were foreign residents,
“This is a high figure, given that in the city of Zurich, the proportion of foreign nationals is 32 percent,” the report pointed out.
On the other hand, “the proportion of foreign nationals among those moving into the city is also above average, at just over 60 percent.”
The study did not indicate the reasons for the relocations, either for Swiss or foreign nationals. It is not known whether the foreigners returned to their countries of origin or simply moved elsewhere within Switzerland.
READ ALSO: Do locals and foreign residents in Zurich get along with each other?
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Nationwide trend
In terms of foreigners moving out of Switzerland (and not just from Zurich), other recent data indicates a similar trend.
It shows that every year, 30,000 European nationals leave Switzerland.
Half of them depart after five years, and after 10 years, 60 percent of EU nationals have returned home.
Among the main reasons for the departures are the high cost of living, the difficulty of integration, and not being able to find a suitable job.
READ ALSO: Why half of European immigrants don’t stay more than five years in Switzerland
