Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO)

Section Demography and migration (DEM)

Federal Statistical Office
Espace de l'Europe 10
2010 Neuchâtel
SWITZERLAND

Data and metadata are transmitted to Eurostat by the Member States in the framework of the Unified Demographic Data Collection which is in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and their implementing regulations.

This Euro SDMX Metadata Structure is used for the purpose of quality reporting. The definition of the quality concepts and guidelines are described in the European Statistical System Handbook for Quality Reports.

The regional breakdown of the Member States in the regional demographic tables is done under the most recent NUTS classification. There are agreements between Eurostat and Candidate countries as well as between Eurostat and EFTA countries, for which statistical regions have been coded in a way that resembles NUTS.

For more information on the versions in force, please see: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/.

Not applicable.

Number of persons.

Population, live births and deaths data are available at national and regional level of geographical detail.

1 January - 31 December.

Not applicable.

Data is collected at unit (person) level.

The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December).
The reference period for vital and dual events data is the calendar year in which the events occurred. However, some events from previous years which have been registered late are also included. The reference period for migration flow data is the calendar year in which the migration occurred.

Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of 18 April 1999;
Federal Statistics Act of 9 October 1992 (CC 431.01);
Federal Act on the Fedral Census of 22 June 2007 (CC 431.112);
Ordinance on the conduct of Statistical Surveys by Confederation of 30 June 1993 (CC 431.012.1);
Ordinance on the Federal Population Census of 19 December 2008 (CC 431.112.1).

Not available.

Federal Act on Data Protection of 19 June 1992 (CC 235.1);
Ordinance to the Federal Act on Data Protection of 14 June 1993 (CC 235.11);
Federal Statistics Act of 9 October 1992 (CC 431.01);

“Section 5 – Dissemination and services” of the Federal Statistics Act specifies:

Article 18, paragraph 3: Unless such publication is required by law, the results may not enable any conclusions to be drawn regarding the circumstances of individual natural persons or legal entities that the person or entity concerned has not already made generally available.

Article 19, paragraph 2: The federal statistical bodies providers may disclose personal data for purposes not related to specific persons, in particular for research, planning or statistics, to research and statistical offices of the Confederation and to third parties, if:

a. the data is rendered anonymous, as soon as the purpose of the processing the data is achieved;
b. the recipient divulges the data with the consent of the statistics generators;
c. the recipient only discloses the results so that the persons concerned are not recognisable; and
d. the recpient meets the requirements for compliance with statistical secrecy and the other data protection provisions.

Not available.

Provisional data on Vital Statistics are released at the end of February, definitive data at the beginning of July of each year.
Provisional data on Population Size and Composition are released at the end of April, definitive data at the end of August of each year.
Definitive data on Migration are released at the end of September of each year.

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/news/agenda.html

Data and metadata are available on internet. Data are mostly made available through excel tables and interactive tables (PC-Axis), on the web pages of the FSO, in German and French, and partly in Italian and English.

For researchers, microdata can be made available for a limited duration, after signing a data protection contract.

The data are disseminated to all users at the same time. Users are informed via newsletters or press releases.

Some provisional vital events data are disseminated monthly. Provisional data on population size and composition are disseminated quarterly. The remaining vital events data and data on population size and composition are disseminated twice a year (first provisional, then definitive).

Migration flow data are disseminated yearly.

Press releases for vital events, population stock and migration data can be found here:

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population.html (English);

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/bevoelkerung.html (German);

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/statistiques/population.html (French);

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/it/home/statistiche/popolazione.html (Italian).

Data are mainly made available on the FSO internet pages, according to the release calendar. Results can be found under different topics. The main page for the Population Domain is the following: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/population.html.

The annual printed publications “Statistical Yearbook of Switzerland”, “Statistical Data on Switzerland”, “Switzerland's population” and “Newsletter Demos” present (among other topics) results on vital events, population stock and migration. They can be found on this webpage: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/catalogues-databases/publications.html.

The main results on Vital Statistics and on Population are disseminated through interactive tables (PC-Axis):

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/services/recherche/stat-tab-online-data-search.html.

First date of release for 2023 Population: 22.08.2024.

First date of release for 2023 Vital Statistics: 20.06.2024.

Not applicable.

Not available.

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/basics/quality-reports.html

The necessary information on the variables listed can be found here:

Nomenclatures / Catalogue of characteristics / Harmonisation of official registers of persons

German: Nomenklaturen: Merkmalskatalog / Katalog der Merkmale, Gemeindeverzeichnis, Heimatort, Ausländerkategorien, Konfessionszugehörigkeit | Bundesamt für Statistik (admin.ch);

French: Catalogue officiel des caractères, Nomenclatures | Office fédéral de la statistique (admin.ch).

Fact sheet STATPOP:

German (with Synopsis): Statistik der Bevölkerung und der Haushalte | Bundesamt für Statistik (admin.ch);

English: Population and Households Statistics | Federal Statistical Office (admin.ch).

Fact sheet BEVNAT (vital statistics):

English: Vital Statistics BEVNAT | Federal Statistical Office (admin.ch) – the BEVNAT synopsis can be found in the appendix.

Not available.

Not available.

Not available.

According to Article 4 (2) of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014, each year Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data at national and regional level as described in Annex II and related standard reference metadata ( In the metadata structure definition defined for the Euro SDMX Metadata Structure) for the reference year within 12 months of the end of the reference year. According to Article 3 (2) of the Commission Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, Statistics on international migration, usually resident population and acquisition of citizenship shall be supplied to the Commission (Eurostat) within 12 months of the end of the reference year.

Most data on vital events are available the year following the event. However, some births and deaths, especially if they took place outside the country, can be registered with some delay.

Data are recorded with good punctuality in the registers and delivered by the various administrations to the FSO, via a secured IT line, according to planification.

Data cover the whole of Switzerland and are completely comparable between geographical areas.

Data are coherent. The use of a unique personal identifier (the social insurance number) in all data sets allows for record matching during the production of the data and the correction of any incoherence. 

Incoherence concerning residence permit statistics can only occur between data delivered by the Federal Statstical Office and data eventually delivered by State Secretariate for Migration, but not in the data from one same institution.

Additional information according to the letter/email from 30 October 2018:

— The differences between Residence Permits Statistics and International Migration Statistics:
International Migration and Residence Permits flow and stock data are not identical due to different population definitions and incoherencies between the data sources used for compiling these statistics.

Data are coherent. The use of a unique personal identifier (the social insurance number) in all data sets allows for record matching during the production of the data and the correction of any incoherence.

No direct burden on respondents for data extracted from registers. A very small burden for citizens by completing register data with a diversity of thematical enquiries. However, reaching for a very small part of population (for example structural survey: annually 200 000 citizens).

Below are the links to the evaluation report of the new census system including its statistics/surveys such as STATPOP, BEVNAT etc. (German and French only):

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/grundlagen/volkszaehlung.assetdetail.3922064.html (German);

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/fr/home/bases-statistiques/recensement-population.assetdetail.3922062.html (French).

Normally, data published are considered definitive and there is no revision.

Data on population stock and migration are collected quarterly, data on vital events are collected daily.

Register-based data:

— A special law was passed to define the minimum content of the already existing registers of persons: the Federal Act of 23 June 2006 on the Harmonisation Register of Residents and of other Official Registers of Persons (CC 431.02. See also the Ordinance on Register Harmonisation of 21 November 2007, CC 431.021). It also addresses the transmission of data to the FSO, the legal obligations regarding registration, the delays in reporting, etc.

— Vital events are registered in the system Infostar of the Federal Civil Registry Office, according to the Ordinance on Civil Status of 28 April 2004 (CC 211.112.2).

For information:

https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/de/home/gesellschaft/zivilstand.html (German);
https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/fr/home/gesellschaft/zivilstand.html (French);
https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/it/home/gesellschaft/zivilstand.html (Italian).

Persons can be registered in several registers, so during processing the FSO links the records with the help of a unique personal identifier (the social insurance number).

— Annual structural survey.

Absolute figures received from the administrative registers are validated by the FSO before being processed and disseminated. Data validation takes place at several levels of data processing, and involves checking rules and data cross validation. Checking rules refer to the fulfilling of the restrictions imposed to the value of a data item in order to consider data as correct. If data are not plausible, the data provider is contacted for clarifications. Cross validations are carried out to check data consistency between the different tables. The last step of data validation refers to data and demographic indicators consistency over time.

Net migration – the difference between the number of immigrants and the number emigrants during the year (net migration is therefore negative when the number of emigrants exceeds the number of immigrants).

Data are not adjusted.

No comment.