Commuters in Switzerland travelled an average of 14km to work in 2022, a fairly stable figure. But more and more are travelling to another canton. Half use the car, 29% public transport and 18% walk or cycle.
Of the country’s 3.6 million commuters, 71% worked outside their municipality. This is considerably more than in 1990, when only 58% of commuters worked outside their home town. According to the latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), published on Friday, 19.4% of commuters cross cantonal borders, almost twice as many as 30 years ago.
Half of all commuters (50%) use the car as their main means of transport to get to work. This proportion has fallen very slightly over the past 20 years. In terms of public transport, the FSO figures show a very slight increase: 16% (11.2% in 1990) of commuters use the train, and 13% (16.9% in 1990) use the bus.
In terms of soft mobility, 9% of people walk to work, slightly fewer than in 1990, and 7% cycle, a proportion that has hardly changed. On the other hand, electric bicycles are making steady progress, rising from 1.5% in 2020, the first year for which statistics are available for this mode of transport, to 1.9% in 2022.
Commuters travel an average of 13.7 kilometres to work and take an average of 30 minutes.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Swiss oddities
Mennonite movement turns 500 in Zurich, where it all began
Train vs plane: would you take a direct train between London and Geneva?
Eurostar is planning to run direct trains from Britain to Germany and Switzerland from the early 2030s. Would you favour the train over the plane? If not, why not?
This content was published on
The Fête de l'Epouvantail (scarecrow festival) is celebrating its 30th anniversary and returns to Denens in canton Vaud for its seventh edition from July 10-20.
This content was published on
A 35-year-old man has died in a work accident at the valley station of the Heimwehfluh toboggan run in Matten near Interlaken, canton Bern.
This content was published on
The Swiss embassy in Tehran re-opened on Sunday after being closed on June 20 owing to the unstable situation in the country.
This content was published on
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and her youngest daughter Princess Ariane attended the Netherlands' women's European Championship football match against Wales in Switzerland on Saturday.
Swiss want to better protect military airfields from spying
This content was published on
Swiss Defence Minister Martin Pfister says he wants to better protect Swiss military airfields against espionage activities.
Man charged with flying drone at women’s Euro 2025
This content was published on
A man flew a drone around the venue on Wednesday evening during the first match of the Women's EURO 2025 in St. Gallen. The 30-year-old violated the absolute ban on flying during match days. He was reported to the police.
More than 250 Swiss companies sign CO2 reduction initiative
This content was published on
A total of 257 companies from Switzerland have signed up to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). In doing so, they are committing to CO2 reduction targets that are compatible with the Paris Climate Agreement.
Swiss accident prevention group sees federal targets at risk
This content was published on
The Swiss government's target for accident figures is at risk, reckons Mario Cavegn, member of the executive board of the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention.
Feminicide: Swiss justice minister calls for electronic monitoring
This content was published on
Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans has called for electronic monitoring and an ankle bracelet warning system for perpetrators of violence against women.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.