Switzerland recorded fewer births and marriages in 2025, extending demographic trends that have become increasingly pronounced over the past decade.
According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), 78,200 children were born in Switzerland in 2025, around 100 fewer than a year earlier. Although the decline was marginal, it marked the fourth consecutive annual fall in births. The pace of decline has slowed compared with previous years, but the broader direction remains unchanged.
Over the past decade, Switzerland’s demographic slowdown has become increasingly apparent. Annual births have fallen by almost 10%, from around 86,600 in 2015 to 78,200 in 2025. Fertility has declined even more sharply, dropping from 1.54 to 1.28 children per woman.
During 2025 the fall was concentrated among women under 35. Births among women aged 35 and over increased, pushing the average age of motherhood to 32.5 years.
Deaths, by contrast, remained broadly stable at 71,900. As a result, Switzerland’s natural population increase—the difference between births and deaths—remained positive at 6,300 people. Yet that figure has fallen sharply over the past decade. In 2016, the equivalent surplus stood at nearly 23,000.
The figures underline a demographic reality shared by much of Europe: populations are ageing, fertility rates remain low and natural population growth is steadily weakening. In Switzerland, as elsewhere, population growth increasingly depends on migration rather than births exceeding deaths.
On current fertility and life-expectancy trends, Switzerland would probably stop growing naturally in the mid-2030s. Without immigration, population decline would begin around then, as deaths start to outnumber births.
The decline in fertility reflects two distinct trends. Fewer people are choosing to become parents, while those who do are increasingly stopping at two children.
Attitudes appear shifting against parenthood. In 2023, 17% of people aged 20–29 said they did not want children, compared with 6% a decade earlier. Childlessness is particularly common among highly educated women in large urban centres. Between 2019 and 2024, third births fell by 13.6%, a markedly steeper decline than that recorded for first or second births.
Underlying both trends is the continued postponement of motherhood, which reduces the number of childbearing years and increases the likelihood that intended births never occur.
Marriage has also become less common. Around 35,900 couples married in 2025, a decline of 2.3% from the previous year and the third consecutive annual fall. The total included around 800 marriages between same-sex couples. The number of weddings had briefly risen following the introduction of marriage equality in 2022, but that effect now appears to have faded.
Divorces also declined. Swiss courts granted 15,800 divorces in 2025, around 400 fewer than a year earlier. Even so, provisional estimates suggest that nearly two out of every five marriages could eventually end in divorce if current patterns persist.
Taken together, the figures suggest a society in which people are marrying later, having fewer children and relying less on family formation than previous generations.
For policymakers concerned about the long-term financing of pensions, healthcare and social services, those trends are likely to matter far more than the modest year-to-year fluctuations in the data.
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