Demographics of Switzerland - Nationality

Nationality

Further information: Swiss people and Immigration to Switzerland

The number of registered resident foreigners was 1,001,887 (16.17%) in 1970. This amount decreased to 904,337 (14.34%) in 1979, and has increased steadily since that time, passing the 20% mark during 2001 and rising to 1,524,663 (20.56%) in 2004. The number of Swiss citizens thus numbered about 5.9 million in that year.

In 2007, 1.45 million resident foreigners (85.4%, or 19.1% of the total population), had European citizenship (Italian: 295,507; German: 224,324; citizens of Serbia and Montenegro: 196,078; Portuguese: 193,299; French: 83,129; Turkish: 75,382; Spanish: 66,519, Macedonian: 60,509; Bosnian: 41,654; Croatian: 38,144; Austrian: 36,155; British: 32,207). ; 109,113 residents were from Asia; 69,010 from the Americas; 66,599 from Africa; and 3,777 from Oceania.

In 2004, 35,700 people acquired Swiss citizenship according to Swiss nationality law, a figure slightly larger than that of the previous year (35,424), and four times larger than the 1990 figure (8,658). About a third of those naturalized are from a successor state of Former Yugoslavia: 7,900 Serbia-Montenegro, 2,400 Bosnia-Herzegowina, 2,000 Macedonia, 1,600 Croatia. 4,200 were from Italy, 3,600 from Turkey, 1,600 from Sri Lanka, 1,200 from Portugal, and 1,200 from France.

The yearly rate of naturalization has quintupled over the 1990s and 2000s, from roughly 9,000 to 45,000. Relative to the population of resident foreigners, this amounts to an increase from 8‰ in 1990 to 27‰ in 2007, or relative to the number of Swiss citizens from 1.6‰ in 1990 to 7.3‰ in 2007. The following table shows the historical development of the rate of naturalization.

year naturalizations fraction of resident foreigners fraction of citizens
1990 8,660 7.6‰ 1.6‰
1991 8,760
1992 11,100
1993 12,900
1994 13,700
1995 16,800
1996 19,200
1997 19,200
1998 21,300
1999 20,300
2000 28,700
2001 27,600
2002 36,500
2003 35,400
2004 35,700 23.4‰ 6.0‰
2005 38,400 25.7‰ 6.4‰
2006 46,700 30.9‰ 7.8‰
2007 43,900 27.4‰ 7.3‰
2008 44,400 28‰

In recent decades, many Portuguese and Ukrainians represent large immigrant communities in the country. Tamil refugees fleeing from war in Sri Lanka are the largest number of Asians, while Albanians and other former Yugoslavians continue to grow in number. Switzerland is also the second largest European country in number of acceptance of Iraqi refugees fleeing from the violence in Iraq since 2003, but behind Great Britain, Germany and Sweden in the number of Iraqis taken residence for a European country.

In 2004, 623,100 Swiss citizens (8.9%) lived abroad, the largest group in France (166,200), followed by the USA (71,400) and Germany (70,500). (see Swiss diaspora).

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