Basel-Landschaft

Basel-Landschaft surrounds the city of Basel to the south and east and has 303,872 residents, 161,523 jobs and 17,876 enterprises. GDP was CHF 22.8 billion in 2022, or CHF 77,693 per head, but real growth that year was just 0.8%, the second-weakest of the 26 cantons. Employment has grown steadily, by 6.1% between 2019 and 2024. Unemployment rose to 3.1% in August 2026 from 2.7% a year earlier.

The canton is the industrial and research hinterland of the Basel life-sciences cluster. Chemicals and pharmaceuticals employ 5,940 people, 2.6 times the Swiss share, and employment in the sector grew by 15.5% in five years. Allschwil, on the city border, hosts the main site of Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area, the biotech company Idorsia and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute; the peptide manufacturer Bachem is based in Bubendorf and Clariant in Muttenz, near the Schweizerhalle chemical site. The measurement-instruments group Endress+Hauser has its holding company in Reinach, and Johnson & Johnson's Synthes business operates in Oberdorf. Wholesale and retail trade (12.4%) and construction (8.3%) are above the Swiss average; hotels and restaurants have the lowest job share of any canton.

The tax profile is split. KPMG puts the maximum effective corporate tax rate at 13.45% for 2026, below the Swiss average of 14.43%, but the top income tax rate of 42.22% is the second-highest in Switzerland after Geneva. The median gross monthly wage in Northwestern Switzerland was CHF 7,156 in 2024.