How often do people in Switzerland visit the doctor?

A study by The Lancet Regional Health Europe journal has found that women and men over 50 in Switzerland visit the doctor an average of three times per year.

Study reveals how often people in Switzerland visit the doctor

One of the realities of getting older is that you often have to make more visits to your local doctor. But exactly how many times a year does the average Swiss citizen make a trip to their local GP? 

A study published in The Lancet Regional Health Europe has revealed how frequently people living in Switzerland visit the doctor. The study included almost 150.000 people, all over 50 years old, from 27 European countries.

Looking at the average number of visits to the doctor in 2022, Switzerland ranks around average when compared to other European countries. Women in Switzerland visited the doctor an average of 3,4 times per year, for men the figure was slightly lower at 3,05 times. 

The European country with the most doctors visits per year was Luxemburg: 5,96 for women and 5,01 for men. The country with the lowest average number of visits was Finland, with 2,27 visits for women and 2,06 for men.

Aside from Liechtenstein, which was not included in the study, people in countries that border Switzerland all visit the doctor more frequently than the Swiss. The annual average number of visits in France was 3,57 for women and 3,09 for men, in Germany, 4,42 visits for women and 3,96 for men. Italy had an average of 4,47 visits for women and 4,04 for men, and Austria had the most with 4,68 visits for women and 4,08 for men.

Number of doctor visits increasing in Switzerland

The study also looked at trends over time. In Switzerland, the number of visits to the doctor generally increased between 2004 and 2022, whereas France, Spain and Germany all experienced a decrease. 

In the case of Switzerland, a recent study from CSS portrayed quite a bleak picture of health among the Swiss population. Only 11 percent of people living in Switzerland feel very healthy, and there is a rise in the number of people suffering from poor sleep and fatigue. 

As the Swiss population grows and people live longer, some measures are being taken to help ease pressure on the Swiss healthcare system, such as enabling pharmacies to treat minor conditions and hiring more foreign workers to ease a shortage of Swiss doctors. Health insurance premiums are also set to rise again in 2026 due to increasing healthcare costs.