When the fridge is empty and the weather is freezingly cold, it’s always tempting to ditch the trip to the supermarket, whip out the mobile phone or laptop and order some piping hot, comforting and delicious pizza. Now, a new study by the Tages-Anzeiger has revealed which German-speaking Swiss cities offer the cheapest and most expensive zas.
In justifying its “Pizza Index” for 2023, the newspaper made the point that while the cost of other fast food and prices at the supermarket don’t change depending on where you live, pizza prices across German-speaking Switzerland differ hugely - they found that prices can vary by up to 22 percent! They argued that therefore, the price of pizza is actually a great way to analyse the cost of living in each region.
To see which region offered the best deals on pizzas, the newspaper analysed 1.542 restaurants available on the Just-eat.ch platform in 12 of the largest German-speaking cities in Switzerland. They then compared the average cost of a margarita pizza - defined as a pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, oregano, basil, olive oil and nothing else - in each town.
In all, the second city of Canton Bern, Thun, and the capital of Graubünden, Chur, have the cheapest pizzas east of the Röstigraben. The average cost of a medium margarita in both towns stood at 14,23 francs.
This was in major contrast to the most expensive pizzas, which were from Zurich and coming in at an average cost of 17,30 francs. Zurich was followed by Zug (16,28), Basel (16,06) and Bern (15,82) with all four cities having higher prices than the Swiss average, estimated by the Tages-Anzeiger to be 15,65 francs per pizza.
The newspaper explained that the price differences can be attributed to the higher cost for businesses in Zurich in comparison to Chur and Thun. The cost of rent and the higher salaries demanded by workers in the larger cities are the main reasons why pizzas are more expensive in Zurich than they are in places where the cost of living is lower.
In all, here are the 12 largest cities in German-speaking Switzerland, ranked by the average cost of pizza.
For more information about the study, and to see the other cost of living metrics used, check out the Tages-Anzeiger piece (paid article).