Where do the Swiss go, when they live abroad?

More than one in ten Swiss lives abroad. The number has more than doubled since 1980. This graphic illustrates that the Swiss don’t like to stray too far from home. At the end of 2015, more than 760,000 Swiss lived abroad. People move around a lot these days and for many different reasons: tourism, family, studying or work, said Gianni D’Amato, director of the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies, at the recent Congress of the Swiss Abroad in Bern. Most of the Swiss emigrating abroad are young: the average age for women is 33 years old and for men, it’s 35, explained D’Amato. The University of Neuchâtel professor nevertheless noted that retirees made up 7% of those leaving Switzerland. According to a study by Philippe Wanner, professor at the Institute of Demography and Socio-economics at the University of Geneva, a large number of Swiss moving abroad come from the urban regions of Geneva, Zurich, Lausanne, Bern and Basel. France is the biggest draw ...