Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Almost one in five Swiss residents has dual nationality

Italian passport
Almost a quarter of Swiss dual nationals possess an Italian passport. Keystone

Around 17% of Swiss residents over the age of 15 hold two passports. Canton Geneva has the highest proportion of dual nationals at 45%. 

According to figures released by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Tuesday, the double nationality rate exceeds 20% in the cantons of Zurich, Basel City, Ticino, Vaud and Neuchâtel. The cantons with the lowest proportion of Swiss citizens with a second passport are Bern, Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Appenzell Inner Rhodes and Appenzell Outer Rhodes, which do not exceed 10%. 

Among the dual national population, 64.4% obtained Swiss nationality by naturalisation, while 35.6% had it at birth. The non-Swiss nationality most prevalent among dual nationals is Italian (24.7%), followed by French (11.2%) and German (7.8%). 

A total of 45,000 people were naturalised in Switzerland in 2017: 2,000 more than the previous year. More than three-quarters of them came from a European country. One-fifth of the total benefited from a facilitated naturalisation process offered to spouses and children of Swiss citizens.

More

More

Becoming Swiss: ‘Where do I sign?’

This content was published on Swiss citizenship is highly sought after – and correspondingly hard to get. swissinfo.ch looks at how to get the naturalisation ball rolling.

Read more: Becoming Swiss: ‘Where do I sign?’

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

More than 1,100 Swiss cheeses on show in Lugano

More

Swiss Cheese Awards winners announced

This content was published on The three best Swiss cheeses were chosen on Friday in Lugano from over 1100 products submitted to an international jury.

Read more: Swiss Cheese Awards winners announced
Switzerland delivers equipment worth 5.6 million to Ukraine

More

Switzerland will deliver rubble removal equipment to Ukraine

This content was published on Thirty rubble removal machines and thirty fire-fighting pumps: this is the equipment that Switzerland will be delivering to the Ukraine in the next few days. The total value of these goods is 5.6 million Swiss francs.

Read more: Switzerland will deliver rubble removal equipment to Ukraine

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR