Geneva is the least attractive city to live in Switzerland
As reported by the portal Swissinfo.ch, the report was compiled based on an analysis of the budgetary and financial situation of 2,300 municipalities and urban districts. The main indicator was the amount that remains at the free disposal of households after deductions for all "fixed" expense items, after paying insurance, and so on.
In first place by this criterion, as last time (in 2011), remains the canton of Uri. Glarus is also a very "profitable" canton to live in. The least attractive from this point of view is Geneva, along with the cantons of Basel-City and Basel-Country, Zurich, Neuchâtel, and Vaud.
The leadership of Uri and Glarus stems primarily from factors such as low housing costs, moderate tax burden, and relatively low compulsory health insurance premiums. In the cantons of Geneva and Basel-City, the situation is exactly the opposite, as after all payments and deductions, people have the least free money left.
Along with rent, insurance, and taxes, equally important factors are indicators such as real estate prices, transportation costs, and childcare expenses. From this perspective, families with children are best off living in the French-speaking cantons of Fribourg and Vaud, as well as in the bilingual German-French canton of Valais.
Overall, the western French-speaking cantons of Switzerland are characterized by more generous state (i.e., paid from cantonal budgets) child allowances, subsidies for daycare places, and more favorable tax conditions that allow deducting childcare expenses from the taxable base.
As for housing specifically, according to the Credit Suisse bank report, from a financial point of view, agglomerations of urban-type settlements and rural regions are much more attractive than purely urban centers. According to the bank's experts, living in the countryside is associated with higher transportation costs, but still, in the vast majority of cases, by choosing to live in a village, a Swiss resident can save quite significantly, primarily on rent.
Therefore, moving to the countryside can be especially beneficial for those who earn "little," by Swiss standards, of course. The threshold here is 5,021 francs per month (approximately 4,700 euros per month at the exchange rate in mid-December 2016). Those who earn less are considered low-income and should consider moving to the countryside, where, for example, a good modern four-room apartment costs only 1,865 francs per month (1,700 euros), while for the same apartment in Zurich or Geneva, you would have to pay an average of 3,000 francs (2,800 euros).