Methodology

Principles

• Official sources only. Every value comes from a dataset published by a federal authority (FSO, FTA, FOPH, ElCom, opentransportdata.swiss, FSO ThemaKart) and carries its source, its reference year and its unit.
• Canonical identifier. Municipalities are identified by their FSO number (official commune register, as at 01.01.2026, 2’110 municipalities). The name is never a key.
• Municipal mergers. Data from earlier reference years is linked to the 2026 municipalities via the official correspondence table. Counts (population, stops, dwellings) are added together; rates that cannot be aggregated (tax burden, 2021 indicators of merged municipalities) are shown as unavailable rather than estimated.
• No silent estimates. A missing value is displayed as “data unavailable”. No value is extrapolated, smoothed or invented.
• Visible statuses. Every block carries a badge: “Official” (published value shown as is), “Derived from official data” (Civiora calculation — median, count, normalisation), “Partial coverage” or “Data unavailable”.

Taxation — standard scenarios (2025 tax year)

The tax burden is never compared using cantonal multipliers (not comparable between cantons), but through identical standard cases calculated with the tax calculator of the Federal Tax Administration (FTA): federal, cantonal and municipal taxes on employment income, no wealth, no religious affiliation (no church tax), as a % of gross income.

• S1 — single, no children, 80’000 CHF;
• S2 — single, no children, 120’000 CHF;
• S3 — married single-earner couple, no children, 120’000 CHF;
• S4 — married single-earner couple, 2 children, 150’000 CHF;
• S5 — single retiree, 80’000 CHF.

2025 is the most recent complete reference year (the 2026 scales of four cantons were not yet final at the time of retrieval). Municipalities that merged or changed canton on 01.01.2026 are shown as “unavailable”: their new multipliers have not yet been published.

Health insurance premiums (2026)

The official FOPH premiums (priminfo) are linked to each municipality via the official 2026 premium regions table. The headline figure is the median of the offers for a fixed scenario: adult (26+), 300 CHF deductible, accident cover included, standard model. The official FOPH average premiums (all deductibles and models) are shown as a complement. The premium depends on the region, not the municipality: all municipalities in the same region share the same values.

Electricity (2026 tariff year)

Official ElCom tariffs, H4 profile (household consuming 4’500 kWh/year), standard product, in ct./kWh, all components included (energy, grid, levies, federal surcharge). Where a municipality is served by several grid operators, Civiora displays the median of the tariffs and states this explicitly.

Population and demographics (STATPOP, 31.12.2024)

Permanent resident population by municipality (STATPOP, FSO), 2010–2024 series. Density is calculated on the official area of the generalised G1 boundaries. Shares of 0–19 year-olds, of people aged 65 and over and of the foreign population: as at 2024.

Housing (2025) and public transport (2026)

Vacant dwellings: official FSO count as at 1 June 2025 (number and rate), 2015–2025 series; housing stock: GWS statistics 2024. Public transport: number of passenger stops located within the municipal territory, counted by Civiora in the official list of service points (as at 04.08.2026); the presence of a railway stop is flagged. From the official 2026 timetable (GTFS), Civiora also counts departures on typical days — Tuesday 08.09.2026 and Sunday 13.09.2026 — as well as the share of evening departures (from 8 pm).

Civiora index v1.1.0

The Civiora index is a proprietary, non-official index calculated from the official public data above. It measures one thing only: the municipality's relative position on measurable costs (taxation, premiums, electricity), housing availability and public transport provision. It does not measure quality of life, nor services, safety or education.

• Each component is the municipality's percentile rank among the 2’110 (spread from 4 to 99; ties receive the average rank). Costs are inverted: cheaper = higher rank.
• Taxation: average of the five scenarios S1–S5. Premiums: adult scenario. Electricity: H4 tariff. Housing: vacancy rate (more available dwellings = higher rank). Transport provision: the better of the two ranks “stops per 1’000 inhabitants” and “stops per km²” (so as to penalise neither cities nor rural areas).
• Weightings v1.1.0: taxation 30%, premiums 20%, transport provision 20%, electricity 15%, housing 15%.
• Missing data: the component is excluded and the remaining weights are renormalised; the confidence level drops from “high” to “medium”; below three components, no index is published.

Version history: v1.1.0 (05.08.2026) — housing weight raised from 10% to 15%, transport provision lowered from 25% to 20%, reflecting the weight of housing in public debate; v1.0.0 (04.08.2026) — initial version. Any change to the weightings gets a new version and is documented here.

Known limitations: premiums are regional (not municipal); service frequency is based on two typical days of the 2026 timetable (it does not reflect seasonal variations); the 2021 Regional Portraits indicators (land use, jobs, social assistance) date from 2004/09–2020 and are shown with their year; the index reflects costs, not a value judgement on a municipality.

Corrections and error reports

Any error noticed can be reported to the contact address given in the legal notice. Corrections are documented and the reference year of the data is visible on every page.