Switzerland’s financial centre and largest metropolis is a magnet for foreigners who, along with multilingual Swiss nationals, enjoy one of the world’s highest standards of living. The city ranks Top 10 in our overall Prosperity index, powered by an industrious citizenry that ranks Top 3 in our Labour Force Participation and #6 in GDP Per Capita subcategories, with major European players like Migros and UBS AG based here. The city’s population is also the largest it’s been since the halcyon days of the early 1960s, and in late 2023, a European Commission study named Zürich residents the continent’s happiest, at 97%. Some of Europe’s highest salaries certainly help, as does the ability to keep the good times going with a local talent pipeline from Insead Business School and ETH Zürich (aka the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). The city ranks Top 3 in our University subcategory. All that talent is getting on corporate site selector radars, as evidenced by Microsoft’s opening of a new technology centre at the Zürich Airport to “deliver immersive industry experiences and deep technical engagement focused on business outcomes to customers,” according to the company. The airport, ranked #17, will only catch up with the city it serves after a multistage renovation is completed in 2026.