How much money you need to live comfortably in Switzerland | Expat Well (2024)

Many expats are attracted to Switzerland due to the high salaries, low taxes (compared to other countries in Western Europe), beautiful nature and overall high living standards. For a full list reasons why you should live in Switzerland check out this blog post on 11 reasons why you should relocate to Switzerland.

However, as most people know these benefits don’t come cheap with many Swiss cities ranking near the top of global expat cost of living rankings.

This raises the important question of how much money do you actually need to earn to live “comfortably” in Switzerland?

Although cost of living varies considerably due to each individual’s personal preferences and situation, according to our estimations a single person would need a net salary of 3,500 CHF to live comfortably in most Swiss cities while a family of four would typically require a net salary of at least 9,000 CHF per month.

In the sections below I will give you a more detailed breakdown of different living expenses in Switzerland to give you a better idea of how much you would need to live comfortably in Switzerland depending on your own unique personal situation.

Salaries in Switzerland

In order to better understand how much you need to earn to live comfortably in Switzerland you need to have an idea of how much Swiss workers earn in different industries.

The table below shows an overview of the average salaries for common professions in the country.

Some things to note about these salaries are:

• They are average salaries (i.e. 50% earn above this number and 50% earn below).
• Variations at the top and bottom of these numbers can differ quite a lot depending on the profession.
• These are national averages and location will impact these figures for example salaries in Zurich are on average 10% higher than in Geneva.
• Net salaries vary depending on factors including age, part time vs full time, marital status, children etc. These figures listed in the table were calculated based on a full time, single employee aged 35 working in Zurich.

Living Expenses

Housing/Accommodation

Depending on where you live and the type of housing you choose individuals can expect to spend between 25-40% of their net salary on rent or mortgage payments.

Housing costs will also vary by location. For example rent in Zurich is typically around 3% lower than in Geneva. Below is a table of average rental prices in the four biggest cities in Switzerland.

Entertainment/Recreation

Everyone’s monthly entertainment budget will vary depending on the types of activities they like doing, how often you do them and how many people you are doing these activities with.

Below I have included an overview of the average prices for popular entertainment/recreational activities. As you will see this is one area where you will likely see the biggest monthly expenditure increase compared to other countries around the world.

Groceries

Groceries also make up a significant percentage of your monthly outgoing expenses.

Many people in Switzerland will drive across the French, German or Italian borders to do their weekly grocery shopping in order to cut down on their grocery bills. Buying groceries in Germany or France can be as much as 50% cheaper, particularly for grocery items which are extra expensive in Switzerland like meat.

Below is an overview of what you can expect to pay for commonly bought grocery items.

Healthcare

As you can see in the table above doctors in Switzerland can make several hundred thousand Swiss Francs per year. With those kinds of wages you would expect health care to be expensive. And you would be right.

The annual health care costs for Swiss residents is 2,800 CHF per year. However the majority of major medical expenses will be covered by the mandatory private insurance that Swiss residents are required to have.

These mandatory insurance plans will normally have an annual deductible between 300 to 2,200 CHF and require patients to pay 10-20% of the cost of their total medical treatment which is capped at around 700 CHF per adult and 320 CHF per child.
As with most systems the higher the deductible the lower the monthly premium with high deductible plans costing up to 50% less than plans with a low deductible.

Premiums do vary depending on factors like your age and which canton you reside in. A full list of health insurance premiums for each canton can be found here.

Below is an overview of what you can expect to pay for common medical treatments/medications in Switzerland.

Children

Every parent knows that the children can add a significant amount of cost to a family’s living expenses.

Tuition Fees

As an expat you may wish to send your children to one of the international schools in order to make their transition to Switzerland go as smoothly as possible. Most international schools in cities like Geneva or Zurich will cost between 12,000 to 35,000 CHF per year per child.

Daycare

Daycare is another significant expense for parents living in Switzerland with daycare on average costing two thirds of the country’s monthly average wage.

Parents can expect to pay around 130 CHF per day or 2,600 CHF per month for daycare for their child. However, these costs can be brought down through various tax breaks.

Transportation

The final major monthly expense category covered in this post is transportation costs.

Public Transportation

If you live in the city center of cities like Geneva or Zurich you can generally get around using the well established public transportation systems.

A one way transportation ticket in Zurich would set you back 4.40 CHF while a ticket in Geneva would cost 3.00 CHF. Similarly a monthly transportation pass in Zurich would cost 85 CHF while a monthly pass in Geneva would cost 70 CHF.

Taxi’s

Taxis in Switzerland are pretty expensive with rides starting at about 7.00 CHF and costing an additional 4.50 CHF per km. For example, you could expect to pay around 110 CHF for a 20 minute taxi ride.

Car Ownership

Below is an overview of the average price of five of the most popular car models sold in Switzerland.

Conclusion

In conclusion your cost of living will vary mostly based on your own personal preferences and family status rather than the specific location in Switzerland which you have chosen to live.

It is really important to try and calculate what you would expect to spend to live the type of lifestyle you want before accepting a job in Switzerland.

I have myself rejected job opportunities in Switzerland which initially appeared to offer an attractive package but after further examination turned out not to be as financially interesting as I would have initially thought.

To put my estimations of 3,500 CHF for single individuals and 9,000 CHF for families of four (rent included) in perspective these salaries should give you a comparable lifestyle to the salaries listed in the cities below.

Other Switzerland Content