Expensive homes, low savings rates: The dream of prosperity is increasingly distant for many Swiss

class = “sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc”>

Many people in Switzerland earn less today than they did a few years ago. Wage increases in many sectors lag behind inflation. Inflation figures do not even include health insurance premiums.

The promise of prosperity in Switzerland is faltering – and quite so, as a set of figures show. So it’s no surprise that people on very low incomes will vote on Sunday, especially for the 13th AHV pension.

Including basic insurance premium increases, the development looks particularly bleak: Accordingly, the average household in Switzerland has lost 6.1 percent of its purchasing power since 2001, as economist Fabio Canetg (35) calculated last autumn. lost. This year, premiums increased by an average of 8.7 percent.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for households in the fifth lowest income group to set aside money. Your savings rate has fallen steadily over the last 15 years. For many people, holidays, car purchases or other major expenses are becoming increasingly unaffordable. However, this is often overlooked when looking at savings rates at all income levels. This is rising in most years thanks to wage increases in higher-income households. As incomes decline, significantly rising health insurance premiums and rents are having a particularly significant impact.

Another indicator that the promise of prosperity is weakening is the home ownership rate. While the Swiss were increasingly confined to their own four walls by 2015, this rate had since fallen from 38.4 percent to just over 36 percent. This is due to property prices rising significantly faster than wages. Today, only three percent of the population earns enough to buy an average house worth 1.1 million francs. This shows that the dream of owning a home is becoming increasingly unrealistic even for high-income families.

When looking at the average wealth minus debts per capita, 2022 ranks first with 606 thousand francs, while when looking at the more meaningful average wealth, it ranks 6th with 148 thousand francs per capita. This means that half the population has more, the other half has less. The country’s richest people, in particular, are increasingly leaving ordinary citizens behind. The richest percentage of the population owns almost 45 percent of all property. The poorer half of the population can claim only 4 percent of the country’s net worth.

When it comes to social mobility, Switzerland performs quite moderately compared to other countries, according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office. Only 27 percent of children from educationally disadvantaged families are educated. For comparison: in academic families, the rate is 70 percent. One of the reasons for this is early selection in Swiss schools.

Source :Blick