Saving in Switzerland: How much Switzerland saves

We Swiss are often said to be good with money. But do we really live up to this reputation in an international comparison? And how is the savings of Mrs. and Mr. Swiss actually distributed among private households? Do we save in general or is saving limited to the high income brackets? You can find the answers to these questions in this article.

The Swiss save around a fifth – only China saves more

A look at the latest OECD data, which compares the savings rates of private households in more than 30 OECD countries, seems to confirm the Swiss’s alleged propensity to save: After all, with a savings rate of 18.8% (2016), Switzerland is in second place worldwide behind China (2015: 37.1%), followed by Sweden (2016: 16.6%) and far ahead of countries such as Germany (2016: 9.7%), Austria (2016: 7.9%) and the USA (2016: 5.0%).

These values are in relation to disposable household income. Compulsory savings in the form of mandatory occupational pensions, which Switzerland – unlike the USA, for example – has, are not included. Swiss households therefore have an above-average, voluntary propensity to save compared to other countries.

Four-figure savings on the high side – every month!

What does this mean in concrete terms, i.e. how many francs can Swiss households put aside? According to the Federal Statistical Office, the average (voluntary) savings amount for the years 2012 to 2014 is exactly CHF 1,410 per month and household (see Figure 1).

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40 percent of Swiss households do not save

If we take a closer look at the sample, it is noticeable that the propensity to save among Swiss households varies greatly and – unsurprisingly – depends on income. The 40 percent (1st and 2nd quantile) households with the lowest incomes even have a negative (!) savings amount. Only from the third quantile onwards does the monthly savings amount become positive at CHF 860, rising sharply from CHF 1,941 (4th quantile) to CHF 4,662 (5th quantile or top fifth of income).

Conclusion

We Swiss may be remarkable savers from an international perspective and based on average figures, but this picture is put into perspective when looking at the savings rate per household and income bracket: to put it bluntly, we can summarize that half of Swiss households save and the other half live more or less from hand to mouth.

In the next blog post, we want to explore the question of what happens to the money saved in times of historically low interest rates and take a closer look at the financial situation of Mr. and Mrs. Schweizer.

You can get a complete overview of the topic of “Investing” here: Learning to invest – in eight lessons.

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