Canton of Schwyz - Demographics

Demographics

Schwyz has a population (as of December 2011) of 147,904. As of 2008, 15.6% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2000–2010) the population has changed at a rate of 12.8%. Migration accounted for 10%, while births and deaths accounted for 3.9%.

Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (115,688 or 89.9%) as their first language, Serbo-Croatian is the second most common (2,667 or 2.1%) and Albanian is the third (2,477 or 1.9%). There are 502 people who speak French, 2,447 people who speak Italian and 234 people who speak Romansh.

As of 2008, the population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female. The population was made up of 5,824 Swiss men (42.2% of the population) and 1,058 (7.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 5,932 Swiss women (43.0%) and 988 (7.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the canton, 50,778 or about 39.5% were born in Schwyz and lived there in 2000. There were 19,319 or 15.0% who were born in the same canton, while 35,617 or 27.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 19,622 or 15.2% were born outside of Switzerland.

As of 2000, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 25.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 12.9%.

As of 2000, there were 57,353 people who were single and never married in the canton. There were 59,385 married individuals, 6,201 widows or widowers and 5,765 individuals who are divorced.

As of 2000, there were 50,089 private households in the canton, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 15,043 households that consist of only one person and 4,801 households with five or more people. As of 2009, the construction rate of new housing units was 7.8 new units per 1000 residents.

As of 2003 the average price to rent an average apartment in Schwyz town was 1185.58 Swiss francs (CHF) per month (US$950, £530, €760 approx. exchange rate from 2003). The average rate for a one room apartment was 543.08 CHF (US$430, £240, €350), a two room apartment was about 904.87 CHF (US$720, £410, €580), a three room apartment was about 1068.78 CHF (US$860, £480, €680) and a six or more room apartment cost an average of 1461.34 CHF (US$1170, £660, €940). The average apartment price in Schwyz was 106.2% of the national average of 1116 CHF.

The vacancy rate for the canton, in 2010, was 0.97%.