“You can count on us!”

In April and May of this year, the Institute for Generational Research in Augsburg, led by Rüdiger Maas, conducted the Swiss Youth Trend Study 2025.¹ Young people in Switzerland aged 16 to 29 (and in Germany² at the same time) were asked about their thoughts and attitudes toward social issues.³ The Swiss results provide interesting, perhaps even unexpected insights into the general mood of the younger generation in our country.

What do young people
in Switzerland think?

From April to May, a survey called the Swiss Youth Trend Study 2025 was conducted with 709 people aged 16 to 29 from different language regions of Switzerland. This covers a wide age range, with the youngest still in puberty and finding their way in life, while the older ones are already working and may already have family responsibilities. Nevertheless, the results of the survey are very revealing. 657 people completed a questionnaire and 52 were interviewed. The same group of people was also surveyed in Germany, bringing the total number of respondents to 2,219. In the broadest sense, the survey focused on questions concerning Switzerland’s self-image as a nation and the associated tasks for future generations.

Pride in one’s own
country and political interest

The survey revealed that many young people in Switzerland today are proud or even very proud of their country. This was stated by over 80 per cent of female and male respondents, regardless of whether they live in the city or in the countryside, have exclusively Swiss roots, or whether one or both parents have a migrant background. And that’s not all: 50 per cent of the male respondents showed a keen interest in politics (the proportion among young women is significantly lower at just under 30 per cent). A narrow majority of respondents feel that they can actively shape politics in our country and that their concerns are being heard. This is cause for optimism, as these are the future leaders of our direct democracy. Many young people already identify with a particular political spectrum. Thirty-five percent see themselves as leaning toward the left or right of the party spectrum, while 30 per cent identify with the political centre. Almost two-thirds of them assume that they will maintain their political orientation over the next ten years.

Volunteering

Many of those surveyed are not simply passive consumers of the advantages of living in our country. Almost one in three of them is involved in voluntary work. The most popular areas are sport, the fire service, culture, animal welfare, and church activities. This is a very important finding, because associations have a long tradition in our country. They connect people with the same interests across generations. Commitment to a common cause creates friendships that extend far into everyday life and form an important basis for equal coexistence.

Abolish compulsory
service – certainly not!

Living in peace and maintaining Switzerland’s armed neutrality means that every individual must fulfill their civic duties. 77 per cent of all male respondents consider compulsory service for all to be sensible, while significantly fewer women (only 42 per cent) agree. For the majority of all respondents, however, abolishing compulsory service is out of the question; this time, female respondents are even ahead with 64 per cent, compared to 57 per cent of men. One of them sums up his thoughts pragmatically as follows: “I think it’s good that it exists, even if I don’t feel like doing it.” However, many of those surveyed would prefer civilian service to military service (except for those who tend to identify with the SVP and, to some extent, the FDP). However, it should be noted that the leadership of our army must not abuse its position to ideologically prepare young people for the future involvement of the Swiss army in international military alliances – a goal it has been pursuing for years without discussion or a mandate from the people.

Defending the country in times of war?

When considering the concrete implementation of such civic duties, it may become apparent that many young people today have thought about what it means to perform military service. Some of them are also better informed about world events through digital media portals than consumers of mainstream media, who uncritically follow the narrative generated by propaganda methods.
  The images and news reports of wars with their many innocent victims may also have contributed to young people’s attitudes. Unlike the computer games that many of them play (or have played), those who are killed do not come back to life after being murdered. They are missing as living human beings, which may have become apparent to some. The current political situation will also be a warning call for many. Just under 40 per cent of the young people surveyed indicated that they had moderate to maximum fear of a war against Switzerland. However, according to the survey, 57 per cent of them would not be prepared to defend our country with a weapon, and 79 per cent would not be proud to die for our country. Such considerations are probably rather foreign to them as citizens of a neutral country, because it has long since ceased to be part of Switzerland’s self-image to intervene militarily in “foreign conflicts” or even to hire itself out as mercenaries, as was the case in the days of mercenary service.
  And yet young people know that Switzerland is not indifferent to what is happening in the world, as demonstrated by their spontaneous actions to provide assistance when needed (which was not covered in the questionnaire). Therefore, the question should perhaps be asked in a more nuanced way, distinguishing between the willingness to defend one’s own country and being cannon fodder for the power interests of empires within the framework of military alliances.

‘I am life that wants to live’

The young people surveyed also clearly show what they want: they want to live together in peace and tranquillity—in other words, what Nobel Prize winner, pacifist, doctor, musician, and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer said many years ago: “I am life that wants to live, surrounded by life that wants to live.” Who can fail to think of the many senseless, power-driven wars that are shaking humanity today, the many dead children, women, and men?

Civic education as a foundation

The study shows that these fundamental questions need to be addressed – and not just in Switzerland. This also applies to our school curricula. We need schools that provide everyone with a broad basic knowledge, including serious, ideology-free history lessons that show young people how our country became an independent state. Today, in particular, it must once again become clear to everyone in our country that Switzerland has assumed an important responsibility worldwide for many decades – as a mediator in peace negotiations, through its good offices and by taking in and supporting war refugees – and has represented a deeply humane ethic and statesmanlike responsibility. If this is disparaged by today’s political strategists, who openly or covertly pursue other goals and want to sell off our neutrality, they should take the opinion of the young generation concerned to heart and impart this knowledge and the necessary civic education to them during their schooling.

Finally becoming
a diplomatic superpower again

And one more thing: Switzerland is also called upon by the younger generation to finally make its contribution to peaceful coexistence in the world again, with the same fearlessness and commitment that it showed during the Second World War, when it was a diplomatic superpower and brought hostile parties together.⁴ This makes the reckless fickleness of Swiss politicians (including women!) all the more thought-provoking, as they present themselves as an aloof “political class” (rather than representatives of the people) and gamble away our country’s credibility with irresponsible concepts of neutrality. They are not acting in the interests of the majority of our next generation, as their responses in the survey clearly show.

What does the future hold for me?

The survey also shows that although the future generation is proud to live in our country, it is also critical of developments and has concerns about its prospects for the future. Only 30 per cent feel unsafe in Switzerland, and the security authorities enjoy a high level of trust. “I feel safer in Switzerland than anywhere else. But given the current state of the world, not completely safe,” said one of the respondents. Another said: “Not 100 per cent, but compared to neighbouring countries, yes.” This is linked to another issue that was addressed in the survey: 37 per cent of male and 44 per cent of female respondents are afraid of an escalation of the war in Ukraine.
  They are also concerned about financial issues, such as a possible rise in the cost of living, personal financial decline or the collapse of our pension system. And yet it is clear that young people in Switzerland have far fewer fears than their neighbours in Germany. They are not afraid of the emergence of artificial intelligence (which they already use at work and at school) and tend to respect what the future may hold in this regard, as they say. Of course, all these issues come with problems that they like to discuss with their parents (71 per cent) or friends (70 per cent), but they also use ChatGPT/bots (33 per cent) for help.

Clearer rules for social media

A survey of young people would be incomplete if it were limited to professional and social perspectives, as many of them are already parents or are planning to start a family in the future. As a generation whose everyday life has been strongly influenced by digitalisation since early childhood, they are aware of the problems associated with it and have the relevant experience to contribute to the survey. “My sister is twelve, and it’s really bad how much she’s on her phone and what she posts. My opinion is that you should just take their mobile phones away, but they can’t help it,” says one of them. They are calling for clearer rules for children and young people, rules that they themselves did not have: “Now that there are no restrictions, they see things that could upset them, and then they completely freak out.” They definitely include their own situation: “There definitely needs to be restrictions for the younger generation, but also for us, because we are quite dependent on our mobile phones. So, when it comes to social media, if you look at what it does, humanly and socially, it should actually be reduced quite a bit.”
  The respondent expresses here what Albert Schweitzer had expressed in his time: “Modern man is kept in a frenzy of activity so that he does not come to reflect on the meaning of his life and the world.” That is why 92 per cent of the men and women surveyed believe that social media should only be allowed from the age of 16, and 53 per cent even believe it should only be allowed from the age of 18. In addition, 83 per cent of those surveyed are in favour of banning smartphone use in primary schools, 53 per cent of men and as many as 58 per cent of women would like to extend this to secondary schools, as almost 70 per cent of young people believe that social media does more harm than good to society (only just under 2 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women answered “no age restriction”). The study also shows that the more social media our young generation consumes, the greater their fears are.

Why is the political class hesitating?

The Swiss Youth Trend Study 2025 highlights some interesting observations made by the young people surveyed. They paint a different picture of themselves than those of their generation who have come to the attention of the media due to their criminal and psychologically conspicuous behaviour. A glimmer of hope on the horizon for the future of Switzerland! Why is the political class still hesitating to align its political thinking with the suggestions, opinions and demands of this active and healthy part of the future of Switzerland? What is preventing them from thinking and deciding independently? We would wish them the courage they need to face the challenges they have taken on with their election to office and to learn new things. An attitude described by the great Swiss philosopher : “Being teachable means not only receiving something from others, but also being able to develop a receptive activity, and this receptive activity is something that is perhaps not given enough thought today.”⁵ •

¹ Swiss Youth Trend Study. https://www.generation-thinking.de/post/jugendtrendstudie-schweiz-2025. The quotes in the text are taken from the survey protocols.
² Comparative study in Germany. https://www.generation-thinking.de/en/post/youth-trend-study-2025
³ Today, opinion polls are popular for finding out how certain population groups, depending on their age, gender or culture, feel about current issues. Such surveys can be very useful and provide information on how decision-makers can understand and rethink their tasks. But beware: today, opinion polls are also part of the toolbox of political bodies, which use them with the support of PR consultants (formerly known as propagandists) to intervene in the formation of opinion with appropriate strategies. What’s more, opinion polls are never a substitute for dialogue and personal contact between people, nor do they provide any insight into individual motives, moods or commitment when answering questions.
⁴ See Rings, Werner. (1966). Advokaten des Feindes – Das Abenteuer der politischen Neutralität. (Advocates of the Enemy – The Adventure of Political Neutrality) Vienna/Düsseldorf: Econ-Verlag
⁵ Hersch, Jeanne. (2010). Erlebte Zeit. Menschsein im Hier und jetzt. (Experienced time. Being human in the here and now.) Zurich: NZZ libro