Published on 30 June 2025

Expenditure

The Confederation operates primarily as a transfer budget: a large proportion of its receipts flows to the social security funds and the cantons. Its most important task area is social welfare.

2026 expenditure by task area

Shares in %

• Social welfare: 31 670 mn

  The largest federal task area is social welfare, accounting for just over a third of expenditure (34.9%). This expenditure is bound by law and therefore barely controllable in the medium term. Half of the expenditure goes to old-age and survivors' insurance (AHV). Other areas include federal contributions to disability insurance (IV), individual premium reductions and AHV and IV supplementary benefits, as well as migration expenditure. Expenditure growth depends largely on demographic developments, as well as inflation and salary trends.

• Finances and taxes: 15 038 mn

  Finances and taxes account for 16.5% of expenditure. Expenditure growth in this area can be influenced only in the long term. Third parties' shares of federal receipts, for example, are set out in the Constitution and depend directly on the amount of receipts. Interest expenditure is determined by debt and the development of interest rates. Finally, national fiscal equalization expenditure is also regulated by law. This is intended to ensure that each canton has sufficient financial resources to perform its tasks.

• Transportation: 10 750 mn

  Transportation accounts for 11.9% of total expenditure. It includes expenditure on rail and public transportation (69%), road transportation (29%) and aviation (2%). Transportation expenditure is financed primarily by earmarked tax receipts and is thus largely restricted. Most of these receipts are channeled into the railway infrastructure fund (RIF) and the motorway and urban transportation fund, which cover expenditure associated with the operation, maintenance and extension of the transportation infrastructure.

• Education and research: 9 001 mn

  The education and research task area accounts for 9.9% of expenditure, and around 80% of it is governed by the dispatch on the federal education, research and innovation policy for 2025 to 2028 (2025-2028 ERI dispatch). A low double-digit percentage concerns the EU Programmes Agreement (EUPA) and Horizon transitional measures. The latter will be fully financed by the time the projects are completed in around ten years' time.

• Security: 7 770 mn

  Security accounts for 8.6% of expenditure. More than 80% of security expenditure is attributable to military national defense, which will increase by 243 million (+3.8%) in 2026, due primarily to higher spending on armaments. Security expenditure is set to grow by an average of 5.7% through to the end of the financial plan; with this expenditure trend, Armed Forces expenditure could be raised to 1% of GDP by 2035.

• International relations: 3 829 mn

  The international relations task area accounts for 4.2% of budgeted expenditure. Three quarters of its expenditure goes to development cooperation. Most of the remainder is attributable to political relations, i.e. Switzerland's diplomatic and consular representations, and contributions to international organizations. International cooperation expenditure – including funds for Ukraine and participation in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) – will be frozen until 2030. This measure has been implemented in the financial plan and is in line with the mandate issued by Parliament within the framework of the 2025 budget to reduce the resources allocated to international cooperation for 2026 to 2028.

• Agriculture and food: 3 697 mn

  Approximately 4.1% of federal expenditure goes to the agriculture and food task area, which is steered by three expenditure ceilings: means of production, production and sales, and direct payments. Direct payments account for just over three quarters of expenditure in this task area (2.8 bn).

• Other task areas: 9 078 mn

  The five remaining task areas (institutional and financial conditions, culture and leisure, health, protection of the environment and spatial planning, economic relations) account for 10.0% of federal expenditure.

Development of 2026 expenditure

In CHF bn

Expenditure of 90.8 billion is budgeted for 2026, which is 5.0%, or 4.3 billion, more than in the 2025 budget. This includes expenditure of 0.6 billion for people from Ukraine seeking protection, requested as extraordinary payment requirements.

In 2026, the increase will be particularly sharp in the social welfare task area (+1.5 bn), due to the start of the 13th monthly AHV pension payment, and in the finances and taxes task area, given the cantons' share of the supplementary tax revenue (75% share, i.e. 1.2 bn out of an estimated total of 1.6 bn). Security expenditure is set to grow by an average of 5.1% through to the end of the financial plan; with this expenditure trend, Armed Forces expenditure could be raised to 1% of GDP by 2035.

Data

Detailed data for longer periods are available under the following links:

• data portal
• Open Government Data