A new study from CSS has revealed that people in Switzerland still feel less healthy than they did in 2019. Though residents rated their overall health slightly better than last year, the health insurance provider found that over two-thirds feel tired or exhausted.

Overall health in Switzerland has improved slightly

In the study, CSS noted that overall the health of Switzerland has improved for the first time since March 2020, but remains worse than before the pandemic. In the study, 7 percent of those surveyed in June 2024 said that they felt regularly ill, a drop from 9 percent last year and from its 11 percent peak reported in June 2022.

However, the number of people who reported feeling not entirely well has increased from 25 percent in 2023 to 28 percent in 2024. Nevertheless, a majority of people in Switzerland said they were happy with their health: 50 percent reported feeling healthy, while 15 percent said they were very healthy. 

There was also some good news to be found among young people. The percentage of under-36-year-olds reporting a mixed or bad state of mental health has declined from 42 percent in June 2022 to 34 percent in mid-2024. However, young women (39 percent) were still more likely to report having poor mental health than men (31 percent).

Tiredness: the "silent pandemic" in Switzerland

However, the overall figures hide what Watson described as a “new silent pandemic.” 68 percent of respondents reported feeling exhausted or tired on a regular basis. Other common afflictions include pain (43 percent), stress (42 percent), colds (41 percent), depression (28 percent) and anxiety (23 percent). 

In explaining the number of tired people, CSS noted that 57 percent of those surveyed said that there was a huge amount of social pressure to be both productive at work and to live a healthy lifestyle, to the point that the expectation was harmful to their overall well-being. This rose to 75 percent among 18 to 35-year-olds.

The study added that an increasing number of people consider working overtime to be stressful while rates of burnout have also risen, further contributing to levels of exhaustion.

Majority for health-based insurance premiums in Switzerland

Finally, despite most reporting the pressure to be healthy as a negative, for the first time since the study was created a clear majority (54 percent) said that people who live healthier lifestyles should pay less for basic health insurance in Switzerland.

“This slight increase is likely to be related to the steadily rising health insurance premiums, which place a heavy burden on many households,” the CSS wrote.