A photo shows a poster showing US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and reading “Separation from Europe now for all time? NO to the SVP-Chaos-Initiative” in Thayngen, northern Switzerland, on June 1, 2026.
Sebastien Bozon Afp | Getty Images
Switzerland, a wealthy country that once welcomed free travel and foreign investment, is about to vote on whether it can depopulate its population – and impose restrictions on immigration to do so.
Sunday’s survey comes after the country’s population increased by 10% in the 10 years to the end of 2025, when it stood at just over 9.1 million. For the first time, the country had more people over 65 than under 20. Net migration and the birth rate decreased last year.
Relatively low taxes have helped make Switzerland home to global conglomerates such as consumer goods giants Nestlea pharmaceutical heavyweight Novartis and other international companies in finance, luxury goods and technology. It has the world’s highest concentration of billionaires and a much stronger GDP per capita than many other advanced economies.
By the end of 2024, 41% of the population had a background of “migration,” the term used for immigrants and their children born in Switzerland, according to official data, which also shows that 32.5% of the country’s permanent residents are first-generation immigrants. An estimated 1.4 million EU citizens live in Switzerland, comprising about 16% of the country’s population. Some 340,000 EU citizens cross the border every day to work there.
A recent poll found that 52% of respondents would reject the population, while 45% were in favor.
How will population work?
But if voters back the proposal to reduce the population, the State Council and parliament will have to come up with measures to curb population growth until 2050.
Immigration programs will be strengthened if the population exceeds 9.5 million at any time during the next 24 years, with asylum and family reunification programs first in line to deal with the cuts. Switzerland’s initiative for freedom of movement with the European Union may end, if the population rises above the limit of 10 million.
Switzerland is part of the border-free Schengen travel area, along with many of the EU’s largest economies. The bloc and the country have an agreement to allow free movement of each other’s citizens, allowing them to live and work in each other’s territories, as long as they have a job or other source of income.
Switzerland’s far-right SVP party is urging voters to “send a clear signal” to policymakers to curb what it calls “dramatic” population growth.
In a statement last week, the SVP said the population vote would still allow 40,000 people to immigrate to Switzerland each year, but lawmaker Piero Marchesi said population growth has caused problems in public services, wages, rent prices, education and the labor market.
Swiss-based companies have argued that imposing significant restrictions on immigration would undermine the country’s competitiveness and weaken its struggling economy, which has faced weak growth, rising currency, inflation and US President Donald Trump’s tax regime.
Economiesuisse — an important trade body Amazon Web Services, Roche, Google again Johnson & Johnson among its 100,000 members – opposed a campaign of people’s arrest.
Chief economist Rudolf Minsch said in an emailed statement to CNBC Switzerland’s prosperity depends on “openness, innovation and strong economic ties with Europe.”
“We understand that concerns about housing, infrastructure and population growth must be taken seriously, and these challenges require reasonable political solutions,” he said.
“Strict immigration intervals are not the right answer, especially if they risk undermining bilateral agreements with the European Union, which are very important for the Swiss economy.”
Minsch added that Switzerland’s reliance on highly qualified foreign workers, especially in fields such as medicine, technology and healthcare.
“Major immigration restrictions will weaken innovation, growth and competition, making it difficult for companies to attract international talent,” he said.
Speaking to CNBC’s Carolin Roth at the Swiss Economic Forum last week, Nestle CEO Philipp Navratil explained how the country is attractive to foreign investors, adding: “It is important that these Swiss conditions are maintained.”
“We must not take this for granted; it is caused by hard work and determination to make changes,” he added.
He said his company has nine factories, three research centers in the country, and “the majority of our research and development still takes place in Switzerland – this has been happening for 160 years.”
“Reliability is found in Switzerland, because the quality is there in Switzerland, because the talent is there in Switzerland, because Switzerland has created and established the framework conditions that are attractive to the global company,” he added.
Representatives of the Swiss People’s Party next to a banner reading in German: ‘No 10 million Switzerland! sustainability campaign’ in Bern on April 3, 2024.
Fabrice Coffrini Afp | Getty Images
In this conference, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said he was concerned about “excessive plans.”
“Switzerland has a 30 percent foreign-born population, almost as much as Australia, twice as much as Germany,” he said. “And that leads to some frustration in the community. But it’s not the way to solve the problem.”
UBS is one of Switzerland’s largest employers, with around 33,500 employees based in the country.
Joao B. Duarte, an economics professor at Portugal’s Nova School of Business and Economics, told CNBC in an email that the population could damage Switzerland’s credibility in various ways.
“If firms believe that access to European workers may be more uncertain, investment decisions may change well before the legal cause is reached,” he told CNBC.
Duarte said the UK’s exit from the EU “offers a useful warning. Ending free movement did not create a smooth transition to domestic worker satisfaction. It created shortages, employment conflicts and higher costs in sectors that relied on flexible EU workers.”
He added that the EU is Switzerland’s main trading partner, and free movement is linked to a broader bilateral framework that gives Swiss firms a unique opportunity to access European markets.
“If the ‘yes’ vote ends up forcing Switzerland to terminate the free movement agreement, the difficulties will not be limited to migration policy. It may extend to all of Switzerland’s economic relations with the EU,” said Duarte.
– CNBC’s Carolyn Roth contributed to this report.
