The Jahresbericht 2022 by the Bundesamt für Statistik highlights important milestones achieved in 2022 in relation to its Mehrjahresprogramm (MJP 2020-2023). The report covers various aspects of statistical production and products, including population, education and science, health, society, mobility and transport, space, environment, and sustainable development, among others. The report also discusses the importance of the Bundesstatistikgesetz, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2022, and the role of the BFS in the digital transformation of Switzerland.
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (BFS) released its seventh statistical multi-year program for 2020-2023, which sets the goals and priorities for the office’s statistical activities during the current legislative period. The BFS focused on its core business of producing reliable statistical information of high quality and continued various projects related to data governance, interoperability, and multiple data usage in different fields, including health, wages and taxes, data science, and artificial intelligence. In 2022, the BFS employed 883 permanent staff, including 32 trainees and 12 interns, with a budget of CHF 186.7 million for personnel and material costs. The office had a 52% female workforce, and 58% of the staff spoke French.
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (BFS) has developed its strategic plan according to the statistical multi-year program of the federal government for 2020-2023, focusing on consolidating and developing its data management and data science responsibilities. The BFS aims to better align its statistical information with the needs of different users, be more readily available, and rely more on existing administrative data. The BFS is also contributing to the development of the Swiss data ecosystem, with initiatives to simplify and make data sharing more efficient across different sectors. The BFS plans to use its expertise and experience in data management to increase public awareness and understanding of its work.
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (BFS) is contributing to the development of the Swiss data ecosystem by consolidating and further developing its data management and data science capabilities in line with the Federal Statistical Programme for 2020-2023. The BFS aims to better meet the needs of users, accelerate the availability of statistical information, and rely more on existing administrative data. The seventh Statistical Multi-Year Programme for the period 2020-2023 outlines the goals and priorities of the federal statistics and serves as a long-term planning and working program. The BFS aims to achieve four thematic goals, namely data reuse, user satisfaction, flexible production processes and suitable skills, and improved partnerships and frameworks. The BFS also shares various statistics on migration, childbirth rates, and maternal employment in Switzerland.
In 2022, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office published various statistics related to population, energy consumption, and workforce. 10% of the population moved in 2021, and 58% of buildings were heated with fossil fuels. The Swiss population continued to grow, with 8.7 million people in 2021, and the majority of the population was either single or married. A significant number of mothers participated in the workforce, with only 1 in 9 leaving after maternity leave. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant increase in teleworking, but its long-term impact on the workforce remains to be seen. Finally, in 2020, CHF 41 billion was invested in the Swiss public education system.
In the field of education and science, the number of teachers needed in Switzerland until 2031 was a focus area. The population growth will cause an increase of around 6% in the number of teachers, and between 43,000 and 47,000 new primary school teachers will be required, along with 26,000 to 29,000 new secondary school teachers. In terms of education, 45% of the Swiss population participated in further education in 2021, which was a 17% decrease from 2016, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, a majority of those attending were doing so for professional reasons. For youth starting vocational education in 2016, 90% received qualifications within the vocational education system, while 10% did not pass or had not yet completed the qualification process. In 2021, private companies invested almost CHF 17 billion in research and development (R&D), with the pharmaceutical industry spending the most on R&D, and around 62,000 people participated in R&D activities, with a quarter being women. COVID-19 had a significant impact on the mental health of one in four university students, particularly those in music, theatre, and other arts or those with a migration background. Finally, in 2020, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in Switzerland.
In the field of health, the Covid-19 pandemic continued to play a significant role in 2022. Mortality monitoring revealed excess deaths, and the Swiss Health Survey data collection continued throughout the year. The modernization of hospital data in the inpatient sector is currently in the conceptual phase. The project to speed up cause-of-death coding was advanced, with Covid-19 found to be the third most common cause of death in Switzerland in 2020. The SwissCovid-App had over 3 million downloads and 206,443 Covidcodes were entered. The Health Services Statistics were successfully collected from healthcare providers. There were also publications on the situation of healthcare provision, with Covid-19 hospitalizations comprising 3% of all hospital stays but accounting for 22% of intensive care hours. The Spitalstationäre Gesundheitsversorgung project began in 2022 to modernize patient data collection in hospitals. In terms of statistics, 45% of the population came across false or questionable information online, and there was an increase in digital crimes and cases of domestic violence, with 70% of the latter affecting women.
The article discusses various statistics and data related to different aspects of society in Switzerland. The 2022 culture statistics report showed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the importance of digital skills was highlighted in the survey on internet usage. The political statistics agenda included the standardization of cantonal data deliveries. The BFS also released a review of youth criminal sentences from 1999 to 2019, as the statistics were updated to be more modern. There was increased interest in cultural economy statistics and data on Covid-19 relief measures. The article also touches upon transportation statistics, such as the percentage of alpine freight traffic transported by rail and the number of passengers in Swiss civil aviation in 2021.
In 2022, the field of mobility and transport was not in the spotlight, but significant preparations were made in various areas. Numerous publications, surveys, and projects were prepared for release in 2023, such as the results of two major surveys on passenger transport and the implementation of a pilot survey on mobility data collection using a smartphone app. In the field of freight transport, preparations were made for a comprehensive survey on delivery vans, and considerations were made on how to account for the costs of electromobility in statistics. Additionally, statistics show that the economy accounted for 67% of energy consumption in 2020, while households accounted for 33%, and the employment rate in the environmental sector increased from 2.2% to 4.1% between 2000 and 2021. Furthermore, the total amount of materials used by the economy and households per person was 10.5 tons in 2021.
The article discusses various instruments developed for knowledge transfer in strategic areas such as environmental accounting, artificial intelligence, and indicator systems. The use of such instruments promotes fact-based public debates and informed decision-making. The article also provides insights into the relationship between households and climate based on environmental accounts, highlighting a 4% decrease in greenhouse gas footprint between 2000 and 2019. The article also discusses the expansion of environmental accounting and ecosystem balancing studies. The Swiss government’s statistical bureau has published a statistical annex on the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Switzerland. Additionally, the article discusses the development of new monitoring systems and easy access to regionalized data. The Arealstatistik survey, which uses artificial intelligence to identify land use changes, was launched in 2022, and the article also provides updates on various statistics such as the Gender Pension Gap and Social Assistance rates.
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) has released data from various surveys and studies, including the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), the Household Budget Survey (HABE), and the Social Assistance Statistics (SHS), which show that income levels remained stable in 2021 compared to the previous year, while the number of social welfare recipients did not increase. The Gender Pension Gap was also calculated for the first time, revealing a significant difference between the average retirement income of women and men. The FSO reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had the greatest impact on spending in the hospitality and leisure sectors, with little change observed in other areas. Overall, the quality of life in Switzerland remained high, with a slight decrease in life satisfaction observed during the pandemic.
The Swiss economy experienced strong growth in 2022, as reflected in all economic indicators. The high turnover in industry and construction, despite being partly due to a significant price increase, is also noteworthy. The country has not experienced a similar situation in terms of prices in years, with the strong economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic, supply shortages of certain raw materials, and the Ukraine conflict putting pressure on consumer, production, and import prices, as well as construction prices. The year saw the revision of the Swiss National Bank’s payment balance, leading to significant changes, which were integrated into the overall macroeconomic statistics to ensure coherence. The country experienced positive employment prospects, with increased job vacancies, and increased production in the secondary sector. The consumer price index grew at an unprecedented rate, leading to increased use of inflation calculators to make decisions, such as indexation of billions of wages. While the demand for real estate was strong, the year also saw a decline in the number of vacant apartments.
In 2022, the Interoperability and Registry department worked on various digitalization projects and tasks related to statistical production. The National Data Management program (NaDB) promotes the multiple use of data and is closely linked to various digitalization strategies. The I14Y Interoperability Platform was expanded with new core elements and a private area for internal use by administrative bodies. The UID and BurWeb registers were modernized, and important milestones were achieved in revising the General System of Economic Sectors (NOGA). The Gebäude- und Wohnungsregister (GWR) expanded its registry and made its data available on the I14Y platform. Sedex became increasingly important for secure data transfer, and API interfaces were introduced in the pilot phase. Additionally, the department conducted 29 training days for data science or statistical methods, provided methodological support for 22 official statistics, and actively participated in 19 national and international conferences.
The Competence Center for Data Science (DSCC) and the Competence Network for Artificial Intelligence (CNAI) assist Swiss federal offices to use data science and artificial intelligence tools in compliance with the rule of law. The DSCC is affiliated with the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and began operating in January 2021, aiming to anchor data science at the federal level, carry out mandates for federal offices, and promote knowledge exchange. In December 2022, the Swiss federal government adopted a data science strategy that aims to foster awareness and competence in data science, increase accessibility to data science tools and platforms, and promote coordinated efforts in data science applications in the public sector. The DSCC has been involved in 22 official statistics and six new data science pilot projects, as well as knowledge exchange through webinars, workshops, and conferences. It has also strengthened its institutional collaboration with Swiss universities.