Swiss enjoy culture, hiking… and games

Open-air culture: Visitors inspect a mini Bern Zytglogge in the Swiss miniatur park, featuring Switzerland's best-known monuments in miniature Keystone

A majority of Swiss enjoy cultural activities such as going to concerts and the cinema, a survey has found. But hiking and going out with friends are even more popular. And the Swiss are more likely to play cards than a computer game.

Around 70% of the population visit museums and go to concerts and the cinema at least once a year, according to data from the Cultural Behaviour, Language, Religion and Culture Survey 2014, published by the Federal Statistical Office on FridayExternal link. Almost half go to the theatre.

Some 20% of Swiss visit cultural institutions regularly (more than three times a year).

However, the survey uncovered differences: city dwellers visit cultural institutions more often than their country counterparts. The level of education was also found to influence how frequently cultural institutions were visited, with those with higher education more likely to go to concerts.

But the most popular spare-time activities remain hiking, going out with friends, sport, cooking special meals and playing card and parlour games like Jass, a highly popular Swiss card game. In fact, these kind of games were more popular (played more than three-quarters of those asked) than video or computer ones (played by around half), the survey found.

Men film, women sing

Around two-thirds of the population do some sort of creative activity: with photography, drawing, painting and music being the most popular. Men prefer computer-based activities or making videos; women on the other hand are more likely to sing, write or dance.

Blogs, amateur dramatics, rap or street art only interested a small group of those surveyed.

Music was something that interested practically all of the more than 16,000 people surveyed: 20% sang, 17% played music, 9% danced. Around 95% said they listened to music, with 70% going to concerts.