The investigation took into account all the companies registered on the Business Register over a period of ten years. In addition, the analysis focused on the most frequently chosen legal form and the proportion of company founders who were foreign nationals.
More and more international companies are choosing Switzerland as the place to establish their European headquarters, and the three most typical reasons given for this are that it is an attractive market, offers unique skills and production capabilities, and serves as a gateway to Europe.
A total of 41,627 businesses were founded in 2014, which is an increase of 2.3% with respect to 2013, when 40,675 companies were established. The legal form most frequently selected was the limited liability company (15,524), followed by sole proprietorship (13,019), and then joint stock company (9,561). The same pattern was also observed in 2013. Back in 2004, however, the most popular legal form was the sole proprietorship, with a total of 12,898 being founded. The next most popular was the limited liability company (10,686), followed by the joint stock company (7,361).
33.4% of company founders hold a foreign passport
About a third of all company founders (22,543) hold a foreign passport; this is equivalent to 33.4% of all those setting up companies in Switzerland. Back in 2004, this was just 26.5%.
An examination of the proportion of foreign national setting up companies with the most popular legal forms reveals that sole proprietorships were at the top of the table with 39.3% foreign nationals. Limited liability companies came next, with 35.0% foreign nationals, followed by joint stock companies, with 27.7%.
It is interesting to look back at 2004; at that time, the proportion of foreign national founding sole proprietorships was 29.4%, limited liability companies 29.0 %, and joint stock companies 17.7%.
