If Swiss marry foreigners, they most often choose partners from Europe
As Swissinfo.ch reports, native Swiss are marrying each other less and less, while the number of binational family unions in the country is steadily growing. Over the past 30 years, this indicator has almost doubled. These are the new statistical data published last week.
The majority of foreign spouses come from Europe. Between 2011 and 2016, Swiss men overall most often married women from Germany, Italy, Kosovo, France, and Serbia. Swiss women married men from Italy, Germany, Kosovo, France, and Turkey.
In total, during the reporting period, 15,100 binational weddings were held in Switzerland, accounting for nearly a third of all marriages concluded in 2016. At the same time, the number of "purely Swiss" weddings decreased by a third, with only 19,800 such weddings. Overall, 10% of married people in Switzerland live in binational families, with 58% of Swiss born abroad also choosing a foreigner as a marriage partner. Among those born in Switzerland, this figure is only 23%.
In most "mixed" marriages, the man is Swiss and the woman is foreign. Interestingly, until 1992, Swiss women who married foreigners lost their Swiss passport. Today, 96% of men keep their surname after marriage. Among women, only 25% do so, while 70% take their husband's surname after the wedding. However, this number drops significantly when the couple marries abroad—then women are much less likely to take their husband's surname.