Luxembourg vs Zürich for couples
Luxembourg and Zürich, in Switzerland, are about 306 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. Luxembourg leads on cost and healthcare; Zürich on tax and internet speed.
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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
Luxembourg is cheaper: we estimate about €4,187 a month for a couple living centrally, against €4,815 in Zürich. That is €628 a month, or 13%, less.
Taxes
Zürich has the lighter tax load: Switzerland is in our low to medium tax tier, Luxembourg in our high tax tier.
Climate
Both average 11°C over the year. Luxembourg is drier, with about 832 mm of rain a year against 1,083 mm in Zürich (23% less).
Safety
Close: Luxembourg scores 80 out of 100 on safety and Switzerland 78.
Healthcare
Luxembourg has the stronger healthcare: Luxembourg scores 82 out of 100 on healthcare, 7 points above Switzerland (75).
Internet
Zürich has faster home internet: about 230 Mbps median fixed download against about 150 Mbps in Luxembourg.
Language
Main languages: Luxembourgish, French, German in Luxembourg; German, French, Italian in Zürich. English proficiency is rated the same in both: good 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 $3,221 a month in Luxembourg and $2,178 in Switzerland. 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 Luxembourg visa-free and 93 can enter Switzerland.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts cost (€4,187 against €4,815 a month) and healthcare (82 against 75 out of 100) first, Luxembourg comes out ahead. If the other cares more about tax (low to medium tax against high tax) and internet speed (230 Mbps against 150 Mbps), Zürich does.
Size differs too: Luxembourg is a smaller city (under 250,000 people) and Zürich a mid-sized one (250,000 to 1 million people).
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