What would a basic income cost in Switzerland?
Pick a country, who gets it and how much a month. Everything is calculated on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.
Total cost per year
10.6 billion Swiss francs
about 12.7 billion US dollars
9.09 million people × 97 Swiss francs a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)7.6%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)7.2%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)12.9%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)1.2%
Switzerland in numbers
Switzerland has a population of 9.09 million (2025) and a GDP of 868 billion Swiss francs (about 1.04 trillion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 97 Swiss francs a month would cost 10.6 billion Swiss francs a year (about 12.7 billion US dollars), or 1.2% of GDP. That equals 7.6% of central government expense (2023), 7.2% of its revenue (2024), and 12.9% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 1.6 million) would cost 1.87 billion Swiss francs a year (0.22% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 7.49 million), 8.72 billion Swiss francs (1%).
Default amount: 97 Swiss francs a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Swiss francs with the World Bank's PPP conversion factor for household consumption (2025) and rounded to two significant figures. It is a reference point, not a policy proposal; change it above.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- Population
- World Bank: population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), and population by single year of age 0 to 17 (SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN), 2025
- SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2023, 2024
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.