Switzerland · Europe
Moving to Lausanne
Lausanne quick facts
Switzerland at a glance
Europe & Central Asia
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Lausanne
Can you move to Switzerland?
Pick your passport to see whether you can enter Switzerland — and what it takes to stay.
Entry rules come from github.com/imorte/passport-index-data, updated 17 February 2026. They change without notice — confirm with the official immigration service before booking.
Getting set up in Switzerland
Permits, the commune and the graduate route out of EPFL
You register within 14 days at the Contrôle des habitants of your commune, and the cantonal Service de la population issues the permit. Vaud does not centralise this the way Geneva does. The distinctively Lausanne complication is the student-to-employee transition: foreign graduates of Swiss higher education institutions have a specific facilitated route into the labour market, and a limited window in which to use it.
Read the full step-by-step guideExchanging your licence at the Service des automobiles
You may drive on a valid foreign licence for twelve months from taking up residence, and must exchange it inside that window at the Service des automobiles et de la navigation. It needs an eyesight test and, depending on which country issued the licence, a practical control drive. Miss the deadline and the exchange route generally closes, leaving the full Swiss process at several thousand francs.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening an account in Vaud
Once registered, opening an account is routine. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise is the cantonal bank and the local default; UBS and Raiffeisen cover the universal side; Neon, Yuh and Zak are materially cheaper for everyday use. Two things catch newcomers: US citizens face FATCA-driven refusals, and Swiss payments run on QR-bills with nothing auto-debiting by default.
Read the full step-by-step guideLAMal insurance and the only premium cap in Switzerland
Basic LAMal cover is compulsory, bought privately per person, and is not an employer benefit. You have three months from registration to choose an insurer, with cover backdating to your arrival. Vaud is alone in Switzerland in running its premium subsidy so that the burden on a household stays near a tenth of its determining income — which means a great many households qualify who would not elsewhere, and many of them never apply.
Read the full step-by-step guideGetting a Swiss mobile number in Vaud
Swisscom, Sunrise and Salt run the networks, with discount brands on the same masts at much lower prices. Switzerland is outside EU roaming rules, so an EU SIM roams here and a Swiss SIM roams there. In Vaud the two things that matter most are the student and under-thirty plans, which are unusually good, and coverage in the mountains, which is unusually good too.
Read the full step-by-step guideA 155% cantonal coefficient, a communal one on top, and the 1983 accord
Vaud applies a single cantonal coefficient of 155% of the base tax across the whole canton and each commune adds its own on top; Lausanne's is 78.5% under its 2025–2029 decree. Combined with an annual wealth tax on worldwide assets, this is one of the heavier tax regimes in Switzerland. Cross-border workers resident in France are taxed at home under the 1983 agreement, with no Swiss withholding at all where the residence attestation is in place.
Read the full step-by-step guideEach guide has verified costs, timelines, required documents, and the non-obvious gotchas — sourced from official government pages. Last verified August 2026.
Essential French phrases
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What to know before you go
Register at your commune within 14 days — in Vaud that is the Contrôle des habitants, not a cantonal office
CriticalGeneva centralises arrival formalities; Vaud does not. You go to the residents' office of the commune you have moved into, with your passport, contract and lease, and the cantonal Service de la population handles the permit behind the scenes. The date on that receipt starts your three-month health-insurance clock, sets your twelve-month driving-licence deadline and is the proof of address banks ask for. Moving between Lausanne and Renens is a deregistration and a re-registration, not a change of address.
Vaud is the only canton that caps health premiums against income — but you have to be in the system
CriticalBasic LAMal cover is compulsory, individually purchased, and not an employer benefit. Vaud is alone in Switzerland in designing its subsidy so the premium burden stays near ten percent of a household's determining income, and over a third of the cantonal population receives something. The assessment runs off your last tax decision, which a newcomer does not have — so you apply with a current income declaration instead of waiting to be found. The scheme's thresholds are adjusted every year and were trimmed for 2026, so check the current barème rather than a figure from an older guide.
Vaud taxes hard, and Lausanne adds to it
CriticalVaud applies a single cantonal coefficient of 155% of the base tax across every commune, and each commune adds its own on top — Lausanne's is 78.5% under its 2025–2029 decree. Combined with a wealth tax that is levied annually on worldwide assets, the canton's overall burden is among the heaviest in Switzerland. Communes a few minutes apart set different coefficients, so the same salary genuinely nets differently in Lausanne, Pully and Écublens.
If you commute from France, Vaud is not Geneva — you are taxed in France
CriticalVaud is inside the 1983 France-Switzerland cross-border agreement. A French resident working in Lausanne is taxed in France, and the Swiss employer withholds nothing provided you have handed over a stamped attestation de résidence fiscale; France separately transfers 4.5% of the aggregate wage bill to Switzerland. Geneva stayed outside that agreement and taxes its commuters here instead. Anything you read about frontalier tax written for Geneva is wrong for Lausanne.
September is the worst possible month to look for a flat here
ImportantEPFL and the University of Lausanne together bring tens of thousands of students into a city of 140,000, and the academic year starts in mid-September. The market empties in August and prices harden. If you can arrive in spring or early summer, or take a three-month furnished bridge and search into November, you will see a completely different set of listings.
The hills are not a metaphor
Good to knowLausanne is built across three hills and the m2 metro climbs 338 metres in under six kilometres, which is why it is the steepest metro in the world. Walking from the station to the cathedral is a real ascent. Cycling is viable only with an electric assist, and a flat's altitude is as relevant to your daily life as its address — check where it sits on the m2 before deciding it is walkable.
Top industries & employers
Higher education & research
EPFL, University of Lausanne, IMD, CHUV
EPFL is one of Europe's leading technical universities and sits with UNIL on a single lakeside campus in Écublens and Dorigny — around 30,000 students and staff, and the anchor of the whole regional economy.
International sport
International Olympic Committee, Court of Arbitration for Sport, dozens of international federations
Lausanne is the Olympic Capital and hosts the IOC, the Olympic Museum and the Court of Arbitration for Sport, plus a cluster of international federations — a small, closed and unusually credential-driven job market.
Life sciences & medtech
CHUV, Ludwig Institute, Debiopharm, Sophia Genetics, ADC Therapeutics, Nestlé Research
The CHUV university hospital and the EPFL life-sciences school have produced a dense biotech and health-data cluster in the Innovation Park on the campus edge.
Technology & engineering
Logitech, Bobst, Nexthink, Kandou, EPFL spin-offs
Logitech was founded near here and keeps a headquarters on the EPFL campus. The Innovation Park hosts several hundred startups and corporate research units alongside it.
Food, consumer & headquarters
Nestlé (Vevey), Philip Morris International, Nespresso, Bobst
The Lake Geneva arc from Lausanne to Vevey concentrates an unusual number of multinational headquarters, drawn originally by cantonal tax arrangements and now by the labour pool.
Justice & public institutions
Federal Supreme Court, cantonal administration, Court of Arbitration for Sport
Switzerland's highest court sits in Lausanne rather than Bern, which gives the city a legal profession out of proportion to its size.
Where to go in Lausanne
Cathédrale de Lausanne & le guet
Landmark · La Cité, top of the old town
The finest Gothic church in Switzerland, on the hill above everything, with a rose window and a working night watchman.
Local tip: Climb the belfry in daylight for the view, then come back at ten at night. The guet calls the hour from the tower to each of the four cardinal directions, every night, and has done since 1405. It is free, it takes four minutes, and almost no resident has ever bothered.
Ouchy & the lakefront
Neighborhood · The bottom of the m2, on Lake Geneva
The old port district: a promenade, the ferries to Évian, and the water the whole city descends to in summer.
Local tip: The CGN paddle steamers from Ouchy are historic vessels running as scheduled public transport, not tourist boats — a Swiss rail pass covers them. Crossing to Évian in France takes about 35 minutes and makes an absurdly good afternoon.
Plateforme 10
Culture · Beside the main railway station
A new museum district built on the old rail yards, gathering the cantonal fine arts museum, the photography museum and the design museum on one site.
Local tip: It opened in stages up to 2022 and is still not on most visitors' maps. It is two minutes from the station, which makes it the best possible use of a delayed train.
Le Flon
Nightlife · Between the station and the old town
A former goods-yard valley of converted warehouses, now the city's bar, club and cinema quarter.
Local tip: The valley was created by burying the Flon river in the nineteenth century, which is why it sits in a trench with bridges over it. Everything is compressed into a few streets, and the m2 stops in the middle of it.
Lavaux
Nature · The terraced vineyards east toward Vevey
Eight hundred years of stone terraces running down to the lake, on the UNESCO World Heritage list and still worked.
Local tip: Take the train to Grandvaux or Épesses and walk down through the vines to Cully for the train back. The Caves Ouvertes weekend in spring opens the cellars across the canton for a single ticket — locals plan their year around it.
Sauvabelin & the wooden tower
Hidden gemNature · The forest ridge above the city
A beech wood, a small lake with sheep, and a 35-metre spiral tower built entirely of Vaudois timber.
Local tip: Three hundred and two steps up a free, volunteer-built wooden tower gives you the Alps, the lake and the whole Lavaux in one turn. Bus 16 gets you there and the walk back down through the woods to the cathedral takes half an hour. Almost nobody who does not live in Lausanne knows it exists.
Emergency numbers in Lausanne
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