A detailed analysis published by Swiss newspaper Blick has shed light on one of the less visible dimensions of Switzerland's housing crisis: how much living space people have access to depending on their nationality.
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| An analysis published by Blick highlights disparities in living space based on nationality in Switzerland, where immigrant communities often face housing constraints in urban areas. |
According to the analysis, Swiss residents have, on average, significantly more living space per person than people holding several foreign nationalities. The gap is particularly striking among people from North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Turkey and Portugal.
North Macedonians have the least living space
Among the nationalities examined by Blick, people with North Macedonian citizenship have the least living space, averaging just 25.1 square meters per person.
Portuguese residents have around 31.5 square meters per person, while communities from Turkey, Serbia and Kosovo are also among those with the smallest amounts of living space.
At the other end of the scale are Swiss citizens, who have around 50.3 square meters per person. English, German and Austrian citizens also rank relatively high, with approximately 48.9, 47.3 and 47.2 square meters per person, respectively.
The difference is therefore not simply a question of being Swiss or foreign. Nationality correlates strongly with the amount of living space available, with highly qualified expatriates generally occupying substantially larger homes than lower-paid migrant workers.
Why do some immigrant communities live in smaller homes?
Sociologist Ganga Jey Aratnam points to several factors.
One of the most important is income. Migrants from some of the communities with the least living space are more likely to work in lower-paid occupations and therefore have less ability to afford Switzerland's extremely expensive rental market.
This can force families to live in smaller apartments or share housing among several generations.
Cultural and family structures can also play a role. Blick notes, for example, that young Swiss people are more likely to leave their parents' homes and establish individual households, whereas this happens less frequently in some Kosovar families, where several members may continue living together in the same family home.
The result is fewer square meters per person and, consequently, less individual privacy.
Swiss households benefit from a major housing advantage
The differences are visible throughout Switzerland.
In Appenzell Innerrhoden, for example, a one-person Swiss household has an average of 96 square meters of living space, compared with 66.2 square meters for a foreign one-person household.
In Uri, the difference is similarly significant: a Swiss one-person household has around 88.6 square meters, compared with 66.5 square meters for a foreign household — a difference equivalent to roughly an additional room.
Blick's analysis suggests that Swiss residents also benefit from stronger access to housing networks and, in some cases, better opportunities to obtain larger and more affordable apartments, particularly through housing cooperatives in major cities.
This is an important point: the housing gap cannot be explained solely by personal income. Access to information, social networks, housing cooperatives and established residency also influence who gets access to scarce, affordable housing.
Kosovars among the communities living with less space
For the Kosovo community, the findings are particularly relevant.
Kosovo is among the nationalities with comparatively low living space per person, alongside North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Portugal.
This is particularly significant given the size and history of the Kosovar diaspora in Switzerland. Blick has previously highlighted the large population of people with Kosovar roots in Switzerland and their strong presence across Swiss society.
However, it is important to distinguish citizenship from ethnicity. Swiss statistics generally classify people by nationality, meaning that individuals of Albanian ethnic origin may appear under different citizenship categories, including Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Albania or Switzerland.
This makes it misleading to automatically equate every person holding North Macedonian citizenship with a particular ethnic group.
Geneva shows the pressure of expensive urban housing
The housing gap is also visible geographically.
In Geneva, foreigners living in multi-person households have an average of only 28.1 square meters per person, compared with 36.3 square meters for Swiss residents.
Among Swiss multi-person households, Thurgau records one of the highest levels of available living space, at 50.7 square meters per person, compared with 34.3 square meters among foreign residents.
Urban areas face particular pressure because rents are higher and available housing is scarce.
In Basel-Stadt, Swiss residents have around 39 square meters per person, making it the second-lowest figure among Swiss households after Geneva.
Blick's analysis also points to structural reasons. Basel, for example, has a large number of protected buildings, limiting opportunities for expansion or redevelopment. At the same time, housing cooperatives tend to pay close attention to land use, while large apartments are increasingly being built in rural areas.
The surprising housing advantage of retirees
Another striking finding concerns Swiss pensioners.
Retirees have by far the most living space per person, averaging 72.2 square meters, compared with a Swiss national average of 46.6 square meters.
The explanation is relatively straightforward.
Many retirees continue living in houses or apartments originally acquired when their children were still at home. Once the children move out, the same property can provide a very large amount of space for one or two people.
But downsizing is not necessarily financially attractive.
Many older homeowners have relatively low mortgage costs, meaning that moving into a smaller property may not produce enough financial benefit to justify the disruption.
This has become part of a wider debate in Switzerland about how scarce housing should be distributed between generations.
Should elderly people move to smaller homes?
The issue has already generated controversy in Switzerland.
Blick reports that the federal government has considered ways of encouraging elderly people living in large homes to move into smaller properties, potentially freeing larger homes for families.
But sociologist Jey Aratnam argues against treating housing simply as an economic resource that can be redistributed from one person to another.
For elderly people, a home can represent decades of memories, family history and social connections. Moving at an advanced age may therefore have consequences that cannot be measured simply in square meters.
The debate also overlooks another reality: a large proportion of elderly people remain at home well into old age, while some depend on supplementary benefits.
Switzerland's housing crisis is also a question of inequality
The figures presented by Blick reveal that Switzerland's housing problem is not simply about the number of apartments available.
It is also about who can afford them, who has access to them and how many people share them.
A Swiss retiree may occupy more than 70 square meters alone, while a family from one of the lower-income migrant communities may have to divide less than half that amount among several people.
For the Kosovar and broader Balkan diaspora, the figures illustrate a wider challenge faced by migrant families: high rents, lower average incomes, larger households and limited access to the most desirable housing can combine to produce significantly lower living space per person.
At the same time, the data should not be interpreted as proof that nationality itself causes housing inequality. Income, household size, age, location, housing tenure, family structure and access to social networks all interact.
The broader lesson is therefore more complex than simply “Swiss people have bigger homes.”
Switzerland's housing divide reflects a combination of wealth, demographics, geography, family structures and access to the housing market — and nationality is one of the clearest statistical indicators of that divide.