Three quarters of Swiss are satisfied with their financial situation

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

While most are content with their financial future there are considerable differences depending on gender, level of education and income.

Three quarters of the Swiss population feel comfortable or even very comfortable with their financial situation, according to a Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) study published on Tuesday. The researchers define financial well-being as a state in which a person can meet financial obligations and feel secure about their financial future.

How comfortable a person feels with their financial situation depends on many very different factors. For example, women and divorced people have a significantly lower level of financial well-being. Homeowners also assess their situation better than tenants.

Higher education ensures greater well-being

The study also showed that financial well-being increases continuously with the level of education. Graduates of universities or universities of applied sciences therefore showed the highest level of well-being of over 80%. On the other hand, a clear discrepancy emerges among people with only a primary school diploma. Here, only slightly more than half felt comfortable with their own financial situation.

A third of students and people in education expressed a very low to medium level of well-being. Only among non-working spouses is there a significantly higher proportion of dissatisfied people, at 43%.

Share of savings remains high

Compared to the last study in 2018, savings behaviour in Switzerland has not changed. Four out of five people continue to put money aside.

Almost three quarters of respondents (71%) save money for “security and freedom”, which is nine percentage points more than five years ago. This is followed at a considerable distance by categories such as holidays (59%) and retirement provisions (55%). The increase in old-age provision was particularly marked at 11 percentage points.

“In a year-on-year comparison, we see above all that saving for security has gained in importance in order to cushion oneself financially against the unexpected,” says ZHAW researcher Selina Lehner, commenting on the figures.

Around 1,050 people in German-speaking Switzerland were surveyed for the study in spring 2023. It was conducted by researchers from the ZHAW School of Management and Law.

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