Study: The population's concern for the environment is growing

The study, known as the Omnibus Survey, reveals interesting perspectives and sensitivities of the Swiss population. Over 50 percent of the population consider the loss of biodiversity, the use of pesticides and climate change to be very dangerous for people and the environment. These are the initial results of a survey on the environment conducted for the third time by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

The environmental quality in the living environment was also recently rated as very good or rather good by 89 percent, compared with 95 percent in 2015 and 2011. The quality of the environment worldwide was rated as very good or rather good by only 13 percent of the population in Switzerland in 2019, compared with 20 percent in 2015 and 23 percent in 2011.

Traffic noise, air pollution and radiation are increasingly disturbing

In addition to poorer ratings of environmental quality, certain environmental conditions also bothered the population more: in 2019, 31 percent felt very bothered or somewhat bothered by traffic noise at home, up from 24 percent in 2015 and 23 percent in 2011. Air pollution around the house also bothered more people in 2019, at 34 percent, compared with the 19 percent in 2015 and the 17 percent in 2011, respectively.

In the case of radiation, such as that emitted by mobile phone antennas or high-voltage power lines, the proportion of people who feel very disturbed or rather disturbed by this has even more than doubled: namely from 10 percent in 2015 and 2011 to 23 percent in 2019. In addition, 90 percent of the population were very satisfied or rather satisfied with the landscape in their living environment in 2019, compared to 93 percent in 2015 and 94 percent in 2011.

Organic products continue to grow in importance

Changes are also evident in environmental behavior. For example, the trend toward more organic products continued: although the proportion of people who say they always or usually buy organic products was not significantly greater in 2019 than in 2015, the proportion who rarely or never do so declined (19 percent in 2019 versus 26 percent in 2015).

Organic products are particularly popular in French-speaking Switzerland: 53 percent of the population there said they always or usually buy them in 2019, compared with 41 percent in Italian-speaking Switzerland and 40 percent in German-speaking Switzerland. Organic products are also consumed more frequently by residents of urban areas than by residents of rural areas (45 vs. 39 percent), and their consumption also increases with higher levels of education (compulsory school 28 percent, upper secondary school 40 percent, tertiary school 53 percent).

Biodiversity loss, pesticides and climate change perceived as greatest threats

In 2019, the loss of biodiversity and climate change were considered by the Swiss population to be significantly more dangerous for people and the environment than in 2015: While 36 percent considered the loss of biodiversity to be very dangerous at that time, 54 percent were of this opinion in 2019. In the case of climate change, this figure rose from 34 percent to 51 percent in the same period. At 53 percent, the majority of the population also considered the use of chemical pesticides to be very dangerous for people and the environment in 2019.

Other environmental changes and technologies were assessed as less dangerous or their assessment has not changed much since the last survey. The exception is mobile phone antennas: Between 2015 and 2019, the proportion of people who rated them as very dangerous to people and the environment rose from 11 percent to 18 percent.

In 2019, 61 percent of the population also thought that environmental pollution as such was a very big or somewhat big problem for Switzerland, up from 39 percent in 2015.

Additional information can be found in the PDF file below:

The population's concern for the environment is growing