Which internationals got a Swiss passport in 2025?

The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM or Staatskretariat für Migration) has released a report detailing how many expats were naturalised in Switzerland in 2025, where they come from and which cantons granted the most passports.

German expats were largest naturalised group

Many international groups successfully navigated the Swiss citizenship process in 2025 and were issued a Swiss passport - the third most powerful in the world! The 2025 Migration Report by the SEM revealed that 41.269 foreign nationals were granted Swiss citizenship, roughly the same number as in 2024.

21 percent of people who were naturalised in Switzerland come from Germany. This was followed by Italy (10 percent) and France (9 percent). When combined, these countries made up 40 percent of all naturalisations last year.

In all, here are the top 10 countries that expats who received a Swiss passport in 2025 come from (number of naturalisations), summarised by Nau:

1. Germany (8.980)
2. Italy (4.220)
3. France (3.914)
4. Kosovo (2.106)
5. Portugal (1.840)
6. Turkey (1.404)
7. North Macedonia (1.307)
8. Spain (1.280)
9. Serbia (1.096)
10. The United Kingdom (927)

Zurich issued the most Swiss passports in 2025

Successful naturalisation varied by canton in 2025. The metropolitan canton of Zurich took the top place as the Swiss canton that naturalised the most people in 2025, issuing 11.100 passports to internationals (over 25 percent of all issued across Switzerland in 2025).

Vaud had the second-highest number of naturalisations at 5.459, followed by Bern with 3.578. Appenzell Innerrhoden, the least populated canton in Switzerland, naturalised just 14 people. 

Last year also saw an increase in the number of expats leaving Switzerland and a decline in the number of people choosing to immigrate to the alpine nation. In 2025, over 2,5 million residents were foreign nationals, around 23 percent of the Swiss population.