Poll: Swiss Abroad pensioners are enthusiastic while workers struggle

Keystone / Rungroj Yongrit

Swiss pensioners abroad are generally happy with their lives but Swiss nationals who live and work overseas are less satisfied than the average citizen, the latest SBC opinion poll “How are you, Switzerland?” reveals.

The Swiss Abroad are largely satisfied with their lives. This was shown in a recent poll that revealed that on a scale of 1 to 10, 64% of people gave it an 8 rating or higher. There was a clear difference between pensioners, who are more satisfied than average, and workers – who feel the opposite.

This is one of the main conclusions of the second edition of the “How are you, Switzerland?” opinion poll, a major survey carried out this year by the research institute gfs.bern on behalf of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company. In all, 51,000 people took part in the poll – of whom 1,065 were Swiss people living abroad – and answered around 300 questions on various aspects of life.

How can this dissatisfaction among employees abroad be explained?

“They seem to experience more pressure at work with less secure working situations and salaries,” says Urs Bieri from gfs.bern. A third of the Swiss respondents living abroad claimed to be at risk of a burnout. “It’s not just the fear of losing your job or your financial situation but an individually felt pressure that can lead to burnout,” explains the political scientist.

The results for Swiss citizens who live and work abroad were in stark contrast to those for Swiss pensioners, 19% of whom say they are completely satisfied (compared to 10% of respondents living in Switzerland). This group doesn’t seem to feel the need to optimise their lives, as their answers in the SBC survey show.

“While other respondents would like to get outdoors more often or work less, Swiss retirees abroad seem to have an environment that satisfies them in the long term,” says Bieri.

Compared to residents in Switzerland, they are also much less likely to want to boost their level of happiness with moments of pleasure. One exception: almost 24% said they consumed alcohol on a daily basis (cf. Swiss residents: 12%).

You can find an overview of the results of the survey here: 

More cosmopolitanism

Whether retired or working, the Swiss Abroad share a more cosmopolitan outlook with a strong sense of identification with Europe and the rest of world as well as Switzerland. They view being born in Switzerland as a less important factor for Swiss identity.

“This reflects their personal experiences, as they themselves had to find other ways to identify themselves with their new home,” says Bieri.

Another expression of cosmopolitanism – gender equality – also seems to be more relevant for the Swiss Abroad. Almost 70% fully or somewhat agree that there should be as many women as men in management positions in every organisation, compared to almost 54% in Switzerland. Also, 76% of Swiss expats disagree or strongly disagree that a woman should stay at home with her children, compared to 69% of Swiss residents.

When it comes to relationships, Swiss Abroad generally have fewer close relationships. However, they have broader personal networks. “People who have lived in the same place for decades have different relationship patterns than expats,” says Bieri. On a smaller scale, this phenomenon can be observed between urban and rural areas in Switzerland, too. Relationships in cities are broader and more focused in the countryside. In addition, the type of person who ventures abroad also plays into this, as he or she tends to be “a bit more curious and open and therefore able to establish new relationships more easily”, he says.

The poll also pointed to significant differences when it comes to attitudes towards digital technology and well-being. A clear majority of the Swiss Abroad (65%) “fully agree” or “somewhat agree” with the statement that “nowadays, children are given their own mobile phones far too early”. But this figure is well below that of residents in Switzerland (85%).

Answer the following questions from the SBC survey and compare your views with people living in Switzerland and the Swiss Abroad:

A mirror for Swiss society

A key finding of the latest SBC survey was that people in Switzerland are doing well but are more pessimistic about the future than they were a year ago. In this respect, Swiss citizens abroad seem to provide a counterbalance. Although they are just as concerned about international problems like wars, security and terrorism or climate change as the Swiss population, their perception of Switzerland is generally very positive.

“Swiss Abroad act like a mirror that embeds our problems,” says Bieri. This has not changed over the past year. Those people who live in a country where politics move slowly or where dealing with the authorities is more complicated view Switzerland “as a sort of paradise that they left for good reasons, but where a lot of good things are still going on”, he adds.

What is your opinion? Are we too pessimistic about the future? Join the discussion on the SBC debate platform “dialogue”!

The methodology of the survey

The results of “How are you, Switzerland?” are based on a representative survey of 51,182 Swiss residents and Swiss Abroad. It was conducted by the research institute gfs.bern in May and June 2024 on behalf of the SBC. This is the second time this survey has been carried out. Compared to the previous year’s version, some of the questions were new or different, but most were identical.

In all, 3,000 respondents were selected from a online panel by gfs.bern in order to obtain a representative sample of the Swiss population (16 years and older). The sample was stratified according to language region and proportioned according to age and gender.

The other respondents completed the questionnaire online. They were invited to do so via the SBC channels, but decided for themselves whether or not they wanted to participate. This survey method is not representative. Representativeness is achieved by means of specific data weighting and data validation procedures. The questionnaire consisted of around 300 questions. To ensure that an interview did not exceed approx. 20 minutes, gfs.bern did not ask the same questions to all respondents. The sampling error is +/- 1.8 % at 50:50 and 95 % probability.

Adaptation from German: Claire Micallef/sb