Switzerland will hold a referendum in June on whether to cap its population at 10 million until 2050.
The proposal, put forward by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), seeks to limit immigration by restricting entry to newcomers once the population reaches 9.5 million, including asylum seekers and the families of foreign residents.
Switzerland currently has a population of about 9.1 million.
“About 27% of Swiss residents are not citizens,” The Guardian noted.
🚨Report: Switzerland will vote in mid-June on a proposal to cap its population at 10 million by 2050.
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party, the plan would trigger limits on immigration, asylum, and family reunification if the population exceeds 9.5 million.
The country has 9.1… pic.twitter.com/n3LRDVPSkZ
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) February 12, 2026
The Guardian explained further:
The SVP, the country’s largest political party, says the “population explosion” is inflating rents and straining public infrastructure and services to breaking point.
The party, which has finished first in every election since 1999, has long campaigned against immigration, highlighting crimes committed by foreigners and posting images of bloody knives, hooded criminals, fists and frightened women.
The radical nationalist changes it frequently proposes, such as a 2016 proposal to automatically deport immigrants found guilty of even minor offences, and a 2020 plan to end free movement with the EU, have not generally fared so well.
Switzerland’s system of direct democracy allows citizens to propose so-called popular initiatives that are put to a plebiscite if they get 100,000 backers in 18 months. They are a long-favoured tool of the SVP, but only about 10% of popular initiatives pass.
Both chambers of the Swiss parliament, as well as the business and financial services community, are strongly opposed to the initiative.
However, the petition received support from the necessary 100,000+ citizens to trigger the referendum.
Switzerland’s government and parliament are against the so-called “sustainability initiative” to cap the population https://t.co/hOq4R81Wdc
— Bloomberg (@business) February 11, 2026
More from The New York Times:
Opponents of the idea said it would dent the Swiss economy, make it harder to attract foreign workers to fill labor shortages and harm Switzerland’s relationship with the European Union. The population cap would plunge Switzerland “into chaos and isolation,” Jürg Grossen, a centrist political leader, said on Wednesday, according to SRF.
The Swiss government, a seven-member Federal Council that includes members of the Swiss People’s Party, recommended rejecting the initiative in March 2025, saying that the federal council wants to cooperate with the E.U. rather than opposing it. It warned of “far-reaching consequences” including forcing Switzerland to withdraw from several international agreements.
For decades, successive waves of immigration, most of it from other European countries but also from the Middle East and North Africa, have diversified the Swiss population and stoked backlash in some quarters. According to Swiss government statistics, roughly 40 percent of residents aged over 15 are from a migrant background, most of them from European countries.
In 2009, a majority of Swiss voters voted to ban the construction of new mosque minarets, reflecting anxiety about the growth of Islam in a country that, according to government statistics, is majority Christian.
Roughly 48 percent of Swiss support capping the population at 10 million and 41 percent oppose the idea, according to a poll released in December by Leewas, a Swiss-based polling firm, and commissioned by two Swiss media groups.
Governments across Europe have hardened their policies on immigration since the European migration crisis of 2015-16, when more than a million people fleeing wars and poverty arrived on the continent’s shores by boat.
