Basel vs Lyon for couples
Basel, in Switzerland, and Lyon, in France, are about 289 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules. Basel leads on tax, safety and getting by in English; Lyon on cost and healthcare.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Lyon is cheaper: we estimate about €3,767 a month for a couple living centrally, against €4,629 in Basel. That is €862 a month, or 19%, less.
Taxes
Basel has the lighter tax load: Switzerland is in our low to medium tax tier, France in our high tax tier.
Climate
Lyon is 1°C warmer on average over the year: 13°C against 12°C in Basel. Rainfall is similar: about 745 mm a year in Basel and 788 mm in Lyon.
Safety
Basel is the safer pick: Switzerland scores 78 out of 100 on safety, 26 points above France (52).
Healthcare
Lyon has the stronger healthcare: France scores 80 out of 100 on healthcare, 5 points above Switzerland (75).
Internet
Close: about 230 Mbps median fixed download in Basel and about 230 Mbps in Lyon.
Language
Main languages: German, French, Italian in Basel; French in Lyon. English goes further in Basel (good English) than in Lyon (some English).
Residency and visas
Both are rated possible, with conditions for long-term residency for people from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. The cheapest self-funded income route we track starts at about $2,178 a month in Switzerland and $1,720 in France. Citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland have freedom-of-movement or simplified residency rights in both. For short visits, 93 of 198 passports can enter Switzerland visa-free and 93 can enter France.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts tax (low to medium tax against high tax), safety (78 against 52 out of 100) and getting by in English (good English against some English) first, Basel comes out ahead. If the other cares more about cost (€3,767 against €4,629 a month) and healthcare (80 against 75 out of 100), Lyon does.
Size differs too: Basel is a smaller city (under 250,000 people) and Lyon a mid-sized one (250,000 to 1 million people).
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