Eleven minutes a week
Spread across all 87,216 people over 80 in the canton of Zurich, home care still provides 9.4 hours of help with the housework per person per year, which is just under eleven minutes a week. In 2019 it was 13. Over the same period its nursing hours for the same age group rose 54 percent. Only 15.4 percent of the very old receive any household services from home care at all; for the other 73,785 people that work falls to relatives, private providers or no one. With a map of all 160 municipalities and the bill for a legally employed carer.
Summary
At the end of 2024 the canton of Zurich counted 87,216 people over the age of 80. In 1998 there were 47,360. That is growth of 84 percent in 26 years, while the total population grew by 36 percent. At the same time more and more people live alone: 270,969 of the canton's 728,411 private households are single-person households, 37.2 percent. Across all 160 municipalities, a high share of the very old and a high share of people living alone go together (r = +0.37).
The care system responded to this, but only on one side. In 2024 the licensed home-care providers in the canton billed 2,233,721 nursing hours for clients aged 80 and over, 53.9 percent more than in 2019. Over the same period, hours for household and social support fell from 873,369 to 820,058, a drop of 6.1 percent, and that with 15.8 percent more people over 80. Per person over 80 that leaves 9.4 hours of household help a year against 11.6 in 2019, down 18.9 percent. Per client the figure fell from 71.4 to 61.2 hours.
Put differently: medical care at home is growing fast, everyday help is shrinking. Only 15.4 percent of the canton's over-80s receive any household services from home care at all. Who cleans, does the laundry and shops for the other 84.6 percent is recorded in no statistic: relatives, neighbours, private providers and directly employed carers. This study shows where in the canton demand is densest, and calculates what a legally employed carer costs. The spread between the oldest and the youngest municipality is a factor of 3.3: from 2.7 percent in Lufingen to 8.9 percent in Zollikon.
The map: where old age lives in the canton
Ageing has a very clear geography in the canton of Zurich, and it does not follow the assumption that remote valleys would be oldest. The highest shares of over-80s lie on the left and right shores of Lake Zurich and in individual municipalities of the Weinland and the Unterland. Zollikon leads with 8.9 percent, followed by Zumikon and Seuzach (8.7 percent each) and Küsnacht (8.5 percent). At the other end are the growth municipalities around the airport: Lufingen 2.7 percent, Opfikon 3.5 percent.
Share of the population aged 80 and over, end of 2024. Between the youngest and the oldest municipality lies a factor of 3.3: from 2.7% in Lufingen to 8.9% in Zollikon. Map base: generalised municipal boundaries of the canton of Zurich (Office for Spatial Development, OGD). Values: municipal portraits of the Statistical Office.
The position of the two cities is notable. The city of Zurich, at 4.7 percent, sits below the cantonal average, Winterthur at 5.3 percent just below it. In absolute terms the city of Zurich, with about 20,400 people over 80, still holds by far the largest concentration in the canton. Neighbouring Zollikon has almost double the share but only about 1,200 people. For organising care these are two entirely different tasks: a question of density in the city, a question of share on the Gold Coast.
| # | Share 80+ | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zollikon1’206 people · 36.9% single-person households | 8.9 % |
| 2 | Zumikon498 people · 32.8% single-person households | 8.7 % |
| 3 | Seuzach692 people · 32.9% single-person households | 8.7 % |
| 4 | Küsnacht1’282 people · 35.0% single-person households | 8.5 % |
| 5 | Regensberg39 people · 40.6% single-person households | 8.2 % |
| 6 | Männedorf951 people · 33.4% single-person households | 8.1 % |
| 7 | Stäfa1’225 people · 35.1% single-person households | 8.1 % |
| 8 | Oberrieden430 people · 34.6% single-person households | 8.0 % |
| 9 | Greifensee427 people · 31.7% single-person households | 7.9 % |
| 10 | Erlenbach422 people · 32.5% single-person households | 7.6 % |
| 11 | Meilen1’097 people · 33.5% single-person households | 7.4 % |
| 12 | Maur804 people · 31.9% single-person households | 7.4 % |
| 13 | Oetwil a.d.L.190 people · 36.4% single-person households | 7.4 % |
| 14 | Langnau a.A.591 people · 32.2% single-person households | 7.2 % |
| 15 | Urdorf752 people · 37.8% single-person households | 7.2 % |
End of 2024. Subline: people over 80 and the share of single-person households in the same municipality. Across all 160 municipalities the two correlate at r = +0.37.
The subline of the ranking gives the share of single-person households, and the connection is no coincidence: across all 160 municipalities the share of over-80s and the share of people living alone correlate at r = +0.37 (n = 160, highly significant). In Regensberg 40.6 percent of households consist of one person, in Zollikon 36.9, in Küsnacht 35.0. High age and living alone meet in the same municipalities, and it is exactly there that everyday help no longer arises automatically within the household.
The curve: 47,360 in 1998, 87,216 today
The number of very old people in the canton has grown steadily for a quarter of a century, and much faster than the population. From 47,360 in 1998 to 87,216 at the end of 2024: plus 84 percent, against plus 36 percent for the population as a whole. The share rose from 4.0 to 5.4 percent. It is the most reliable number in the entire care debate, because it rests on no scenario: the people who will be over 80 in twenty years already live here.
Share of the population aged 80+ (municipal portraits, indicator 299) applied to the year-end resident population (indicator 204). From 47,360 in 1998 to 87,216 in 2024, i.e. +84%, against population growth of +36%.
In parallel, Zurich's household structure has changed. Since 1970 the population has grown by 46 percent, but the number of private households by 89 percent, from 386,315 to 728,411. Average household size fell from 2.87 to 2.22 people, and the number of single-person households tripled to 270,969. For housework that is decisive: kitchen, bathroom and laundry arise per household, not per person. More households with fewer people in them mean more basic work per head, and in old age ever more often nobody in the house to take it on.
The scissors: more nursing, less housework
What home care in the canton of Zurich delivers to the over-80s can be traced cleanly since 2019, because the Health Directorate publishes the figures by service type and age group. The result is a pair of scissors. Nursing hours under the health-insurance care ordinance rose from 1,451,530 to 2,233,721, up 53.9 percent in five years. Hours for household and social support fell from 873,369 to 820,058, down 6.1 percent.
Billed hours of licensed home-care providers in the canton of Zurich for clients aged 80+, indexed to 2019 = 100. In absolute terms: nursing from 1,451,530 to 2,233,721 hours (+53.9%), household and social support from 873,369 to 820,058 hours (−6.1%). Over the same period the number of people over 80 grew by 15.8%.
Divided by the number of over-80s in the canton, the decline is starker still: from 11.60 to 9.40 hours per person per year, down 18.9 percent. Spread over the weeks, that is just under eleven minutes per person over 80, against a good thirteen in 2019. And per person served the figure fell from 71.4 to 61.2 hours, down 14.4 percent. The number of clients did rise, from 12,224 to 13,404, but each of them gets less.
Billed hours of household and social support to clients aged 80+, divided by the number of people over 80 in the canton in the same year. Down from 11.60 to 9.40 hours, i.e. −18.9% in five years. In 2024, 13,404 of 87,216 people over 80 received such services at all, that is 15.4%.
This is not a criticism of home-care providers but a description of their mandate. Nursing services under the health-insurance care ordinance are co-financed by health insurance; household services in principle are not, and are paid by the people concerned or by supplementary insurance. When staff are scarce and demand for nursing rises by more than 50 percent, nursing comes first. The consequence is a widening gap in exactly the work that decides whether someone can stay at home: shopping, cooking, laundry, cleaning.
Who fills the gap, and what it costs to do it properly
15.4 percent of the canton's over-80s receive household services from home care. For the remaining roughly 74,000 people the everyday work is done by relatives, neighbours, private providers or directly employed carers and household helpers. That last group is the least documented: private households as employers do not appear in cantonal business statistics at all, because their industry dimension covers only sections A to S and the section for households as employers is missing.
Choosing that route does not mean choosing the grey zone. With the Clino payroll calculator, under Zurich conditions and at the usual rate of CHF 29 an hour, a carer working 10 hours a week costs CHF 1,489 a month in total employer outlay, including old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, accident cover, family allowances and administration. She receives CHF 1,187 net. Up to an annual wage of CHF 22,680 that runs under the simplified payroll procedure, with a single annual statement to the social insurance fund; at this rate that corresponds to about 15 hours a week.
| Hours | Gross wage | Employer cost | Net to the carer | Procedure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 h/week | CHF 817 | CHF 901 | CHF 724 | simplified |
| 10 h/week | CHF 1’361 | CHF 1’489 | CHF 1’187 | simplified |
| 15 h/week | CHF 2’042 | CHF 2’224 | CHF 1’780 | ordinary |
| 20 h/week | CHF 2’723 | CHF 2’997 | CHF 2’307 | ordinary |
| 42 h/week | CHF 5’718 | CHF 6’454 | CHF 4’663 | ordinary |
Hourly rate CHF 29, 4 weeks holiday, permit C, age 45. Employer cost = gross wage including holiday supplement plus AHV/IV/EO, ALV, accident insurance and family allowances plus the CHF 19.90 Clino fee. Up to an annual wage of CHF 22,680 the simplified payroll procedure is available; above it the ordinary procedure applies, with occupational pension and source tax. Computed with the Clino payroll calculator, July 2026.
Unregistered
- •No old-age contributions: the carer builds up no pension
- •No accident cover, although insurance is mandatory from the first hour
- •Back contributions and fines fall on the household as employer
- •In a dispute there is no contract either side can rely on
Legally employed (from CHF 901 a month for 6 hours a week)
- •Written contract, old-age insurance from the first franc, accident cover, family allowances
- •Simplified procedure up to CHF 22,680 a year, one statement per year
- •Monthly payslip and an annual wage statement for both sides' tax returns
- •The carer 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, carers and household helpers included: written contract, old-age insurance from the first franc with the cantonal 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: the part of elderly care that happens at home and outside nursing is growing, is barely measured, and runs to a considerable extent without a contract. Registering it turns it into employment with a pension, insurance and rights.
Nursing at home grows by 54 percent while household help shrinks. Yet whether someone can stay at home at 85 is rarely decided by the injection. It is decided by the shopping, the laundry and the cleaning.
Surprising findings
The city of Zurich is younger than its wealthy neighbours
At 4.7 percent over-80s the city of Zurich sits below the cantonal average of 5.4 percent, while the lakeside municipalities right next to it top the ranking: Zollikon 8.9 percent, Zumikon 8.7, Küsnacht 8.5. Inflows of young workers keep the city young, while in the lakeside communities whole cohorts grow old in their houses. For care planning that means the highest density is in the city and the highest share on the Gold Coast.
More clients, fewer hours for each of them
The number of over-80s receiving household services from home care rose from 12,224 to 13,404, up 9.7 percent. Total hours fell over the same period by 6.1 percent. Per person that is a drop from 71.4 to 61.2 hours a year, down 14.4 percent. The service is spread over more people and thinner for each. Roughly ten hours less per year is, per week, about twelve minutes.
A legally employed carer can cost less than many families assume
Six hours of care a week, fully registered, cost a household in the canton of Zurich CHF 901 a month, including all social insurance contributions and administration. The premium over the bare gross wage is about 10 percent. Up to an annual wage of CHF 22,680 a single statement per year is enough under the simplified procedure. The widespread assumption that doing it legally is complicated and expensive does not survive the arithmetic.
Sources
- Statistical Office canton of Zurich — municipal portraits, indicators 299, 204, 325 and 54 (2024) — Share and number of over-80s, single-person households and private households per municipality
- Health Directorate canton of Zurich — licensed home-care institutions (2019–2024) — Billed hours and client numbers by service type and age group
- Office for Spatial Development canton of Zurich — generalised municipal boundaries (open data) (2026) — Map base for the 160 municipalities
- Statistical Office canton of Zurich — «Betriebslandschaft im Kanton Zürich» (business census) (2025) — Industry dimension: NOGA sections A to S, no section T (households as employers)
- Clino — payroll calculator (2026) — Employer cost of a registered carer 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
