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.

2027 expenditure by task area

Shares in %

• Social welfare: 32 738 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. Driven in particular by demographic developments, inflation and salary trends, the increase in social welfare expenditure is significant due to the aging population.

• Finances and taxes: 16 442 mn

  Finances and taxes account for 17.5% 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: 10 836 mn

  Transportation accounts for 11.6% of expenditure. It includes expenditure on rail and public transportation (70%), road transportation (28%) 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: 9 080 mn

  The education and research task area accounts for 9.7% 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 good further 10% concerns the EU Programmes Agreement (EUPA) and the transitional measures relating to the Horizon package. The latter will be fully financed by the time the projects are completed in around ten years' time.

• Security: 8 184 mn

  Security accounts for 8.7% of expenditure. More than 80% of security expenditure is attributable to military national defense, which will increase by 330 million (+5.0%) in 2027, due primarily to higher spending on armaments. Security expenditure is set to grow by an average of 10.8% through to the end of the financial plan; with this expenditure trend, Armed Forces expenditure could be raised to 1% of GDP by 2032.

• International relations: 3 776 mn

  The international relations task area accounts for 4.0% of budgeted expenditure. Three quarters of this 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. Over the years covered by the financial plan, the share of humanitarian aid will increase steadily due to the planned strategic reorientation of international cooperation (IC).

• Agriculture and food: 3 608 mn

  About 3.8% of federal expenditure is budgeted for agriculture and food. This task area is steered via three payment frameworks: means of production, production and sales, and direct payments. Direct payments account for just over three quarters of expenditure in this task area (2.7 bn).

• Other task areas: 9 129 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 9.7% of federal expenditure.

Development expenditure

In CHF bn

Expenditure of 93.8 billion is budgeted for 2027, which is 2.9% (2.7 bn) more than in the 2026 budget. No extraordinary expenditure is expected.

In 2027, the increase will be particularly sharp in the finances and taxes task area (+1.3 bn), due in particular to the cantons' share of the federal receipts (direct federal tax and supplementary tax) and financial equalization – as well as in social welfare (+0.9 bn) due to rising costs for the old-age and survivors' insurance. Security expenditure is set to grow by an average of 10.8% through to the end of the financial plan; with this expenditure trend, Armed Forces expenditure can be raised to 1% of GDP by 2032.

Data

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

• data portal
• Open Government Data