Statistics published at the end of January 2021 show a fall in the percentage of the population included in the definition of middle class in Switzerland.
Middle class includes everyone belonging to a household with a gross income of between 70% and 150% of the median, according to a definition by Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office.
In 2018, single-person households with gross monthly incomes of between CHF 4,094 and CHF 8,773 and families of two adults and two children with monthly incomes between CHF 8,597 and CHF 18,423 were considered middle class. This group made up 56.6% of the population, the lowest percentage since the calculation began in 1998.
Since 1998, the percentage has moved up and down between 61.3% (2009) and 56.6% (2018). In 2018, 23.6% had incomes below the middle class threshold and 19.9% had incomes above.
The median income in a single person household in 2018 in Switzerland was CHF 5,849 a month or CHF 70,188 annually (US$ 78,820). This has risen by 22% since 1998. The same figure in 2018 for a household of two adults and two children was CHF 147,377 (US$ 165,500).
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