Swiss Living Quality Index
The Swiss Living Quality Index ranks all 26 cantons for your priorities: set a weight (0–3) on each of 39 official metrics: taxes, rent, health premiums, sunshine, safety, jobs and more, and every canton gets a personal match score. It applies the OECD Better Life Index principle (user-weighted, transparent, no hidden "best") at Swiss canton level, built exclusively on official Swiss statistics. It runs in your browser, is free, and your weights are never stored.
Mapping to the OECD Better Life Index dimensions
The OECD Better Life Index lets users weight 11 wellbeing dimensions to compare countries. This table shows honestly which dimensions the Swiss Living Quality Index covers today at canton level, and which not yet:
| OECD BLI dimension | Our canton-level metrics | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | Rent (avg) (BFS Strukturerhebung) Vacancy rate (BFS LWZ) | Average rent; vacancy rate (market tightness) |
| Income & wealth | Income tax (single, 80k) (ESTV) | Tax burden (the biggest cantonal lever on net income) |
| Jobs & earnings | Jobs (BFS STATENT) Unemployment rate (SECO amstat) Net migration (per 1,000) (BFS Demografische Bilanz) | Size of the local job market; registered unemployment rate (SECO, monthly); migration pull |
| Health | Health premium, standard model (adult) (BAG / priminfo) Hospital beds (per 1,000) (BFS Krankenhausstatistik) | Mandatory health-premium cost; hospital capacity |
| Safety | Offences (per 1,000) (BFS PKS) | Registered offences per 1,000 residents |
| Environment | Sunshine (MeteoSwiss) | Sunshine hours (climate) |
| Community | Foreign residents (BFS STATPOP) | Share of international residents (context, no preferred direction) |
| Civic engagement | n/a | Not yet covered, Swiss direct-democracy participation data is planned |
| Education | n/a | Not yet covered, childcare costs and school indicators are on the roadmap |
| Work-life balance | n/a | Not yet covered, commute/public-transport quality classes (ARE) are on the roadmap |
| Life satisfaction | n/a | Deliberately excluded: we publish measured official statistics, not survey sentiment |
7 of 11 dimensions covered (2026). The roadmap (income & Gini, public-transport quality classes, childcare costs) closes the gaps release by release, see the data archive.
Method, exactly how your score is computed
- Percentile: each metric value becomes a percentile across the 26 cantons (100 = highest raw value; official source and year shown on every figure).
- Direction: for cost metrics (taxes, rent, premiums, electricity, crime, unemployment) the percentile is inverted, so cheaper/safer scores higher. For context metrics with no objective direction YOU choose the preferred direction.
- Your weights: sliders 0–3 per metric. Score = weighted average of the direction-adjusted percentiles. No hidden weighting, no editorial "best canton".
- Privacy: computed entirely in your browser. Sharing is opt-in: the "Share this ranking" button encodes your weights in the link itself, we store nothing.
What it is not
It does not measure happiness or wellbeing, and it is not an official OECD product. It is a transparent re-ranking of measured official statistics under your stated preferences. Rankings describe order under your scenario, not universal suitability. For household-level money decisions, use the move calculator (commune-level taxes, official ESTV).
Frequently asked questions
What is the Swiss Living Quality Index?
A personal, user-weighted ranking of all 26 Swiss cantons across 39 official metrics (taxes, rent, health premiums, sunshine, safety, jobs and more). You set how much each topic matters; the index scores every canton for YOUR priorities: the same idea as the OECD Better Life Index, at Swiss canton level and built only on official Swiss statistics.
How is the score calculated?
Each metric value is converted to a percentile across the 26 cantons; for metrics where you prefer lower values (e.g. taxes) the percentile is inverted. Your score per canton is the weight-average of those percentiles using your slider weights (0–3). It is computed in your browser and never stored by us.
Is this an official OECD index?
No. The OECD Better Life Index compares countries using its own indicators. The Swiss Living Quality Index applies the same user-weighting principle to Swiss cantons using official Swiss statistics (BFS, MeteoSwiss, EFV, ESTV, BAG). 7 of the 11 OECD dimensions are currently covered; the mapping table shows exactly which, and which not.