In short: In a typical federal vote in the 2020s, the city of Zurich deviates 13 percentage points from the national result — twice as much as in the 1970s.
Does the city of Zurich vote differently from Switzerland? If so: by how much, and is it changing?
For every federal vote since 1933, the difference between the city of Zurich’s result and Switzerland’s can be calculated — regardless of whether Zurich voted more or less in favour. What matters is the size of the deviation.1
In the 2020s, the city of Zurich deviates 12.8 percentage points from the Swiss result in a typical vote. In the 1970s, it was 5.6. Each decade is higher than the last.2
In the 2020s, the deviation rises from 9.0 to 12.8 percentage points. So far, 59 votes are available for this decade. Whether the increase holds with more data remains open.
The five largest deviations since 2020:
| Ballot | City of Zurich | Switzerland | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climate Policy Initiative (Nov. 2025) | 41.5 % | 21.7 % | +19.8 PP |
| Climate Fund Initiative (Mar. 2026) | 49.1 % | 29.3 % | +19.8 PP |
| Individual Taxation (Mar. 2026) | 72.9 % | 54.3 % | +18.6 PP |
| Property Tax on Second Homes (Sep. 2025) | 42.1 % | 57.7 % | −15.6 PP |
| E-ID Act (Sep. 2025) | 63.9 % | 50.4 % | +13.5 PP |
The numbers show the size of the deviation. What causes it — demographics, urbanisation, the mix of ballot topics — cannot be determined from this measurement alone.
The measure used is the absolute difference between the yes-vote share of the city of Zurich and that of Switzerland, regardless of direction: |yes% ZH − yes% CH|. Summarised as the median per decade. The median captures the typical deviation and is robust against individual outliers. ↩︎
Open Data City of Zurich — Vote Results since 1933. Own analysis: 587 federal votes since 1933, of which 483 since 1970. All values calculated from city-wide results. ↩︎