Top Places to Live in Switzerland for 2023 Revealed

The top places to live in Switzerland for 2023 have been announced. A real estate consulting firm called Iazi and a publication called Handelszeitung conducted a big study to find out which places in Switzerland are the best to live in. This year, towns and cities where people speak German came out on top, with the first and second places being in the same Swiss region.

Swiss Community Rankings for 2023

To create the Swiss Community Rankings for 2023 (Gemeinderatings 2023), Handelszeitung and Iazi looked at 948 different Swiss communities to figure out which ones are the best for living. They included all communities with more than 2,000 people, making it the largest study of its kind in Switzerland.

To rank each town, Iazi looked at how they performed in eight different categories, using various measurements. These categories include:

Housing: The cost of buying a house, rates of new house construction, how many rental homes are available, and the cost of renting.
Jobs: The unemployment rate and how many new businesses are there.
People: Demographics and how the population is growing.
Taxes: How much money the town collects in taxes and the tax rates.
Getting Around: Availability of public transportation, access to major roads and highways.
Services: How many doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, schools, shopping centers, and supermarkets are there?
Safety: Crime rates.
Environment: Leisure activities, the number of cultural places, and historical sites.

They used official data from five different government departments to rank each community from the best to the worst in each category. Then, they calculated an average score to make the overall list.

Zug is the Best Place to Live in Switzerland in 2023

Just like last year, Zug was rated as the best place to live in Switzerland in 2023. People praised the town for having low taxes and a strong economy, especially for welcoming new businesses. Zug now has the most companies per person in Switzerland.

Zug’s mayor, André Wicki, said that the town’s success comes from having a good economy, short distances between the town and its people, and excellent schools. The town is also very profitable because of all the businesses it has, and it had extra money in its budget last year. They plan to spend 200 million Swiss francs on new schools and other improvements.

The Best Places to Live Are Also the Most Expensive

However, living in Zug is costly. Like other top towns, apartments in Zug are some of the most expensive in Switzerland. In 2023, the second-best place to live was Cham, which is on the shores of Lake Zug. People liked it for its low taxes, high quality of life, and good job market. Rüschlikon in Zurich Canton also ranked high, and it was praised for its “free swimming pool” and efforts to help newcomers through adult education and events.

French and Italian-Speaking Towns Struggle in the Rankings

Interestingly, the top 20 places in the rankings only included towns and cities in Cantons Zug, Zurich, Graubünden, Lucerne, and Schwyz. There were no towns where French or Italian was spoken in the top 50. The first French-speaking town to make the list was Pregny-Chambésy in Geneva, ranking 52nd, and the first Italian-speaking place was Collina d’Oro in Ticino, ranking 98th.

French and Italian-speaking regions did well in mobility and quality of life, but they didn’t do as well in terms of jobs and taxes.

Among the major cities, Zurich was the highest ranked at 45th, followed by Winterthur (91st), Basel (93rd), Aarau (179th), Bern (199th), Geneva (260th), Lausanne (279th), and St. Gallen (373rd). The lowest-rated town in the list for 2023 was Mümliswil-Ramiswil in Solothurn Canton, followed by Dulliken in Solothurn and Valbirse in Bern.

Here are the top 10 places to live in Switzerland: