The household explosion
Since 1970 the population of the canton of Zurich has grown by 46 percent, but the number of private households by 89 percent. In all 160 municipalities of the canton, households grew faster than the population, without a single exception. That is the most important and least noticed figure for anyone who has to organise housework: kitchen, bathroom and laundry come per household, not per person. With the map of all 160 municipalities, the time series since 1970 and the bill for what household help costs when it is properly registered.
Summary
The population of the canton of Zurich grew from 1,107,788 to 1,615,112 people between 1970 and 2024, a rise of 45.8 percent. Over the same period the number of private households climbed from 386,315 to 728,411, a rise of 88.6 percent. So the canton gained 507,324 people, but 342,096 additional households. Per 1,000 residents there were around 349 households in 1970; today there are 451.
This divergence is not an urban phenomenon and not the exception of a few municipalities. We calculated all 160 Zurich municipalities separately: in 160 of 160 the number of households grew faster than the population. The median household growth is +193.9 percent. At the far end stands Winkel with +652.3 percent, at the other the city of Zurich with +25.1 percent, which already had very small households in 1970.
The reason is the shrinking of the individual household. Average household size fell from 2.87 to 2.22 people. One-person households rose from 85,762 to 270,969, a rise of 216 percent, and today make up 37.2 percent of all private households. Households with six or more people shrank from 4.5 to 1.4 percent. For housework this is decisive: a bathroom has to be cleaned whether one person lives in it or four. More and smaller households therefore mean more basic work per head, and it is precisely this work that is recorded worst in the canton. In the cantonal business statistics, private households as employers do not appear at all.
The scissors: 46 percent more people, 89 percent more households
Anyone trying to estimate the demand for housework usually looks at the population. That is the wrong denominator. Since 1970 the two curves in the canton of Zurich have systematically diverged: the population rose by 45.8 percent, the number of private households by 88.6 percent and the number of one-person households by 216 percent. The distance between the lines is the real story.
Canton of Zurich, indexed to 1970 = 100. In absolute terms: population from 1,107,788 to 1,615,112 (+45.8%), private households from 386,315 to 728,411 (+88.6%), one-person households from 85,762 to 270,969 (+216.0%). Household counts come from the decennial federal census up to 2000 and from the register-based census system from 2012; no household figures exist for 2001 to 2011. The step in the one-person share between 2000 and 2012 is therefore affected by that change and is not read here as a trend.
One limitation belongs here and not in the small print. The household figures up to 2000 come from the federal population census, those from 2012 on from the federal register-based census system; for the years 2001 to 2011 there are no household figures at all. The canton carries both periods in the same series, we follow that, but we leave the gap visible. That is why we read the fall in the one-person share from 39.4 percent in 2000 to 36.4 percent in 2012 not as a real reversal of trend: it falls exactly on the change of method. What is robust is the long comparison of 1970 against 2024, and that one is unambiguous.
160 of 160: a development without exception
Cantonal averages often hide the fact that very different municipalities stand behind them. Here it is the other way round. We calculated household growth and population growth from 1970 to 2024 separately for each of the 160 municipalities, and the result leaves no room: in every single municipality households grew faster than the population. Not in 140 of 160, not in 155, but in all of them.
Change in the number of private households between 1970 and 2024, in percent. In all 160 municipalities households grew faster than the population, without a single exception. The median is +193.9%. The strongest growth was in Winkel (+652.3%), Neerach (+620.2%) and Lufingen (+603.7%), the weakest in the city of Zurich (+25.1%) and Zollikon (+45.5%). For the five municipalities that merged after 1970 the 1970 value was summed from the predecessor communes. Map base: generalised municipal boundaries of the canton of Zurich (Office for Spatial Development, OGD).
The map also shows where in the canton housing was built. The strongest increases lie in the Unterland and the Furttal, in municipalities that were still villages in 1970: Winkel grew from 300 to 2,257 households, Neerach from 208 to 1,498, Lufingen from 164 to 1,154. At the bottom end is the city of Zurich with +25.1 percent, followed by Zollikon with +45.5 percent. That is not a contradiction: both already had small households and little building land in 1970. The city of Zurich already counted 169,056 households in 1970 and today reaches 211,408.
| # | Households | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Winkel300 to 2’257 households · population 365% | +652 % |
| 2 | Neerach208 to 1’498 households · population 362% | +620 % |
| 3 | Lufingen164 to 1’154 households · population 376% | +604 % |
| 4 | Dänikon119 to 786 households · population 397% | +561 % |
| 5 | Buchs445 to 2’917 households · population 337% | +556 % |
| 6 | Boppelsen98 to 600 households · population 282% | +512 % |
| 7 | Oetwil a.d.L.203 to 1’210 households · population 294% | +496 % |
| 8 | Stallikon283 to 1’629 households · population 267% | +476 % |
| 9 | Aesch ZH128 to 725 households · population 251% | +466 % |
| 10 | Oberweningen149 to 801 households · population 261% | +438 % |
| 11 | Brütten183 to 967 households · population 234% | +428 % |
| 12 | Hüttikon72 to 369 households · population 274% | +413 % |
| 13 | Weiach186 to 919 households · population 207% | +394 % |
| 14 | Nürensdorf527 to 2’591 households · population 190% | +392 % |
| 15 | Fehraltorf595 to 2’888 households · population 234% | +385 % |
Change in the number of private households from 1970 to 2024. Subline: absolute household counts and the population growth of the same municipality over the same period. In all 160 municipalities household growth exceeds population growth.
For the organisation of household help this geography has a practical consequence. The municipalities with the strongest household growth are mostly detached-house and terraced-house communities on the edge of the agglomeration, where routes are long and travel is expensive. The highest density of households remains in the city. Anyone deploying staff is dealing with two completely different tasks: with density in the city and with distance in the surrounding area.
The household shrinks, the work per head does not
The engine behind the household explosion is not immigration and not the birth rate, but the dissolution of the large household. In 1970 a single person lived in 22.2 percent of Zurich private households, today it is 37.2 percent. Conversely, households with six or more people fell from 4.5 to 1.4 percent. The multi-generation home, in which housework was divided among several adults, has statistically almost disappeared in the canton of Zurich.
Canton of Zurich, share of all private households in percent. One-person households rose from 22.2 to 37.2 percent, households of six or more fell from 4.5 to 1.4 percent. Average household size fell from 2.87 to 2.22 people. Figures up to 2000 from the census, from 2012 register-based.
From that follows a calculation that is rarely made. A large part of housework is tied to the home and not to the number of occupants: kitchen, bathroom, floors, windows, laundry, shopping, admin. That work arises in a one-person household in almost the same volume as in a four-person household, it is simply spread over one person instead of four. So if the number of households grows twice as fast as the population, the basic work to be done grows closer to household growth than to population growth.
| Year | Population | Private households | People per household | One-person households |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 1’107’788 | 386’315 | 2.87 | 85’762 (22.2 %) |
| 1980 | 1’109’998 | 466’133 | 2.38 | 153’358 (32.9 %) |
| 1990 | 1’154’681 | 523’685 | 2.20 | 195’335 (37.3 %) |
| 2000 | 1’206’708 | 567’573 | 2.13 | 223’624 (39.4 %) |
| 2012 | 1’406’083 | 629’511 | 2.23 | 229’142 (36.4 %) |
| 2016 | 1’482’003 | 664’087 | 2.23 | 241’064 (36.3 %) |
| 2020 | 1’551’342 | 701’253 | 2.21 | 259’464 (37.0 %) |
| 2024 | 1’615’112 | 728’411 | 2.22 | 270’969 (37.2 %) |
No household figures exist for 2001 to 2011 because the federal system switched from the census to the register-based method in those years. The number of one-person households is the published share applied to the number of private households.
This study does not measure how many hours a Zurich household actually cleans; that would be a different survey. What it does show is the denominator that every discussion about household help, care and work-life balance has to refer to. Since 1970 the canton has not primarily gained people, it has gained households. And every household is its own unit of work.
The invisible industry
There is one statistic that shows how thoroughly this work is overlooked. The canton of Zurich publishes a detailed business landscape: establishments and employees by municipality and industry, based on the federal business census. The dataset knows 19 industries, sections A to S of the industry classification, from agriculture to other services.
Section T of the same classification is called «activities of households as employers». It is missing. So the canton knows how many people work in agriculture and forestry in Aeugst am Albis, but not how many people clean, cook, mind children and care for the elderly in Zurich private households. It is the only industry whose employers the canton's own business statistics do not list as employers.
The consequence is a gap that runs through the whole debate. On the number of households there are data going back to 1970; on the people who work in them for pay, practically none. What exists are side figures: from the federal structural survey it can be derived for the canton of Zurich that 96 percent of the cleaning staff in private households are women, and from the survey on unpaid work that 19 percent of people with a tertiary degree regularly draw on help from third parties in the household, against 10 percent without. How many of them are registered, nobody knows.
What it costs to buy this work properly
A growing share of these 728,411 households buys in housework, and a considerable part of that runs without being registered. The main reason is rarely bad faith, it is the assumption that employing someone properly is complicated and expensive. The calculation with the Clino payroll calculator, under Zurich conditions and at the usual rate of CHF 29 an hour, looks different: three hours a week cost the household CHF 461 a month in total employer outlay, including old-age, disability and loss-of-earnings insurance, unemployment insurance, accident insurance, family allowances and administration. Of that the employee receives CHF 362 net. The mark-up over the pure gross wage is around 13 percent.
| Hours per week | Gross wage | Total employer cost | Net to the worker |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 272 | 314 | 241 |
| 3 | 408 | 461 | 362 |
| 4 | 544 | 608 | 482 |
| 5 | 681 | 755 | 603 |
Monthly amounts in francs, computed with the Clino payroll calculator: hourly model, four weeks of holiday, permit C, age 45, simplified procedure. "Total employer cost" includes old-age and survivors' insurance, unemployment insurance, accident insurance, family allowances and the administration fee. Up to an annual wage of CHF 22’680 the simplified procedure is available; above it the ordinary procedure applies.
Without registration
- •No old-age insurance contributions: the household employee builds up no pension
- •No accident cover, although the insurance would be mandatory from the first hour
- •Claims for back contributions and fines hit the household as the employer
- •In a dispute there is no contract that either side can rely on
Legally employed (from CHF 314 a month for 2 hours a week)
- •Written contract, old-age, disability and loss-of-earnings insurance from the first franc, accident insurance, family allowances
- •Simplified payroll procedure up to CHF 22,680 annual wage, one statement a year
- •Monthly payslip and annual wage statement for the tax returns of both sides
- •The household employee builds up a pension and insurance cover, the household has legal certainty
Why a payroll platform publishes this data
Clino registers household employment in all 26 cantons: written contract, old-age insurance registration from the first franc with the cantonal social insurance fund, accident insurance, occupational pension where due, monthly payslips and an annual wage statement, for CHF 19.90 a month. The figures in this study describe our market, and they describe it honestly: it has been growing structurally for fifty years, not cyclically, and it is not captured by official business statistics. Registering a household employee turns this invisible work into employment with a pension, insurance and rights.
Since 1970 the canton of Zurich has gained around half a million people, but 342,096 households. A bathroom does not get cleaned less often because only one person lives in it.
Surprising findings
The city of Zurich comes last, and that is logical
At +25.1 percent the city of Zurich has by far the weakest household growth of all 160 municipalities, even though in absolute numbers it still provides almost every third household in the canton. The reason is that the city had the change behind it earlier: already in 1970 it had small households and little building land. Growth shifted to the municipalities that were still rural at the time. Anyone who wants to see the household explosion has to look at the countryside, not at the city.
The six-person household has practically disappeared
In 1970, 4.5 percent of all Zurich private households had six or more members; in 2024 it is 1.4 percent. Together with the five-person households, the share of large households fell from 12.3 to 5.1 percent. In these households housework was traditionally distributed internally, often across generations. That reserve no longer exists, and it appears in no statistic as a loss.
Households per 1,000 residents: from 349 to 451
Perhaps the soberest way to capture the development: in the canton of Zurich there were around 349 private households per 1,000 residents in 1970; in 2024 there are 451. That is a rise of 29 percent in households per head. Any forecast of the need for household help, care or cleaning that works only with the population figure therefore underestimates it systematically.
Sources
- Statistical Office canton of Zurich — municipal portraits, indicators 204 «population» and 54 «private households total» (1970–2024) — Cantonal values from the row «Zürich - ganzer Kanton»; all 160 present-day municipalities calculated separately
- Statistical Office canton of Zurich — municipal portraits, indicators 325 to 374 (shares of household sizes) (1970–2024) — One-person households 22.2% (1970) to 37.2% (2024), six or more people 4.5% to 1.4%
- Federal Statistical Office — federal population census up to 2000, population and households statistics (STATPOP) from 2012 (1970–2024) — Change of system; for 2001 to 2011 no household figures exist
- Statistical Office canton of Zurich — «Betriebslandschaft im Kanton Zürich» (STATENT) (2025) — Industry dimension: NOGA sections A to S, no section T (households as employers)
- Statistical Office canton of Zurich — statistik.info 2022/02, «Unbezahlte Arbeit im Kanton Zürich» (2022) — 96% female share among cleaning staff in private households; 19% against 10% use of external help by level of education
- Office for Spatial Development canton of Zurich — generalised municipal boundaries (OGD) (2026) — Base map for the municipal map
- Federal standard employment contract for domestic work (2026) — Minimum wage CHF 20.35/hour for unskilled employees from 1 January 2026
- Clino — payroll calculator (2026) — Employer cost of a registered household employee in the canton of Zurich
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About Clino
Clino is a Swiss SaaS platform enabling households to legally employ domestic workers — payroll, contracts, social security, and accident insurance included. CHF 19.90/month. All 26 cantons. Founded 2025 in Zurich. clino.ch
