Never before has a Swiss city been as large as Zurich is now

After two years of low growth, Zurich grew strongly again in 2022: at the end of the year, the city had 6,705 more inhabitants. At the end of the year, the city broke a record from 1962: with 443,037 inhabitants, 2,857 more people live in the city than then.

As the city announced on Tuesday, the 60-year record was reached, although the number of births was significantly lower. So the record fell due to the influx.

2952 people came to the city from Ukraine alone. In total, 44,819 people moved to Zurich, 39,302 left the city. The last time that many people moved to the largest Swiss city was in 2007.

At the end of the year, no Swiss city was larger than Zurich today. On a monthly basis, however, the record of July 1963 with 445,321 inhabitants in the city of Zurich has not yet been surpassed.

However, it is likely that this will be cracked in the course of the current year. Unlike the 1960s, when the population fluctuated more with seasonal workers, the city typically grows most from August to November before declining again in December. The July 1963 record is usually surpassed by September at the latest.

After the boom in the early 1960s, the city lost its attractiveness as a place to live, causing numbers to fall until 1989. After that, the population increased again. A trend reversal is not in sight.