In 1910 there was one domestic servant for every 9 households, in 2025 one domestic worker for every 57

The curve has three sections because the way of counting changes twice. Until 1960 only servants living with the employer, with board and lodging, are counted. From 1970 to 1990 the census counts the occupational class of household work, part-time included. From 1991 the FSO estimates people employed by private households from surveys, by their main job. The jump between 1990 and the years after is mostly a result of this change, not a return of the servants.

One comparison that holds across the breaks: in absolute numbers, about as many people work for private households today as in 1888 (79,488) or 1960 (82,572 domestic workers, 70,653 of them living in). But the number of households has grown 6.4-fold since 1888. And people who work for households today often do so for a few hours a week, for several families.

Women remain the majority, but no longer almost the only ones: in 1910, 98.3% of servants were women; in 2025 the share among people employed by private households is 75%. Today’s statistics also count gardeners, drivers and carers.

In 1910 the cities led. Basel-City had 185 servants per 1,000 households, Geneva 180, almost one for every five households. Lucerne (155), Zug, Vaud and Neuchâtel followed; Zurich, with 121, ranked 7. At the bottom were Appenzell Inner Rhodes, Basel-Country, Valais and Ticino.

Today the order is different. In the simplified procedure Zurich registers the most employers, 31.3 per 1,000 households, followed by Ticino with 27.7. Counting all procedures of Ticino’s cantonal compensation office, there are 70.6 employers per 1,000 households, slightly more than the servants of 1910 (67.3). The comparison has a catch: then the census counted people living in the household, today the office counts households that register someone, often for a few hours a week. Basel-City has fallen to rank 9. There is no discernible link between the 1910 ranking and today’s.

That Geneva, Vaud, Fribourg and Neuchâtel rank low in the simplified procedure does not mean nobody there employs household help. In French-speaking Switzerland most employment runs through chèque-emploi schemes. Including them, Vaud reaches 32.5 employers per 1,000 households and Geneva, according to its scheme, about 72.

In 1910, 25,294 of the 89,605 servants were foreign nationals, 28.2%. In Basel-City the share was 66%, in Geneva 50%, in Ticino 45% and in Zurich 42%. In the rural Catholic cantons with many maids, Lucerne, Zug, Obwalden and Nidwalden, nearly all of them were Swiss.

The historian Andrea Althaus estimates that between 1920 and 1965, war years excepted, about 30,000 German and Austrian women a year came to Switzerland as maids, including those working in hotels and restaurants; in 1930 more than 80% of foreign domestic workers came from these two countries. In 1960, 36.2% of domestic workers were foreign nationals.

There is no official figure on nationality today. On the platform quitt, of 10,641 contracts in 2024, 26% were held by Swiss nationals, 21% by Portuguese, 8% by Spanish, 6% by Italian and 5% by Brazilian nationals. That is one platform, not the whole country.

The maid of 1910 had board and lodging but no old-age insurance, which has existed only since 1948. Anyone who employs a cleaner or nanny today is their employer, even for a few hours: AHV contributions from the first franc, accident insurance from the first hour, a cantonal standard employment contract. The guide Registering a cleaner explains the steps.