Where the number of divorces is the highest and where marriages in the canton last the longest

Philip Rijk

‘Till death do you part…’ Based on the wedding vows, the bond should actually last that long. When they get married, the bride and groom likely have this intention, but not all marriages last a lifetime. In Switzerland, exactly 40,938 couples said yes in 2022, but 16,201 marriages ended in divorce. This results in a simple divorce rate of 39.6 percent.

This means that Swiss couples are more loyal to each other than they already were: just ten years ago, every second marriage in this country ended in divorce. In European comparisons, Switzerland is in the middle bracket with a divorce rate of almost 40 percent. In Austria it is around 35 percent, in Germany it is also 40 percent, in Italy 49 percent and in France 55 percent. The divorce rate is highest in Portugal at almost 70 percent.

There are also regional differences in Switzerland, as shown by a shelf life check by the consumer platform scamstest.com. The twenty largest Swiss cities and all 26 cantons were surveyed and the respective divorce rates were calculated. To do this, the number of divorces in 2022 was determined in relation to the number of marriages in the region in question.

Among the cities, La Chaux-de-Fonds secures the inglorious first place. In the clock city in the canton of Neuchâtel, the divorce rate is as high as 61 percent. A total of 122 couples got married, while 74 couples divorced.

The other top places in the city rankings also go to French-speaking Switzerland. Vernier in the canton of Geneva is in second place with a simple divorce rate of 57 percent, Neuchâtel follows in third place with 54 percent. Zurich, on the other hand, shines with a relatively low divorce rate of just 26 percent – ​​the lowest of all cities surveyed. The divorce rate in Lucerne is just above that at 28 percent. Bern, Uster and Thun are also well below the national average at 30 percent.

A look at the cantons underlines that the prospects for a functioning marriage in French-speaking Switzerland are bleaker than in German-speaking Switzerland. Neuchâtel is clearly at the top with a simple divorce rate of 66 percent, followed by three other cantons in western Switzerland: Jura, Vaud and Geneva. Only Ticino breaks the French phalanx with a divorce rate of 51 percent.

Compared to the cantons, the divorce rate is lowest in Uri and Appenzell Innerrhoden. Does this mean that marriages in these cantons have the highest chance of ’till death do you part’? No. The simple divorce rate only reflects the ratio of marriages to divorces. It says nothing about the duration of the marriages.

However, these data are provided by the Federal Statistical Office. Marriages that divorced later last longest in the cantons of Nidwalden and Appenzell Innerrhoden. With an average marriage length of 17.1 years, Ticino also tops the list for divorce rates, although it has one of the highest single divorce rates in Switzerland.

Divorced marriages, on the other hand, last the least long in the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Solothurn and Zurich. On average, the bride and groom stay there for less than 15 years. Across Switzerland, divorces took place on average after 15.7 years in 2022.