Fribourg

Fribourg is a bilingual canton between Bern and Lake Geneva with 350,918 residents, the tenth-largest population in Switzerland, 167,232 jobs and 21,989 enterprises. GDP reached CHF 21.4 billion in 2022, while GDP per head of CHF 64,502 was the third-lowest of the 26 cantons. Employment grew by 6.9% between 2019 and 2024, and unemployment was 2.6% in August 2026, below the Swiss rate of 3.0%.

Health and social care (15.3% of jobs) and wholesale and retail trade (11.5%) are the largest sectors. Education accounts for 8.7%, the third-highest concentration of any canton, reflecting the bilingual University of Fribourg and the HES-SO schools of engineering and business. The food industry employs 6,655 people, 2.5 times the Swiss share and the third-highest concentration in the country; Migros's meat processor Micarna is based in Courtepin, and agriculture is also well above average (1.8 times). Industrial employers include Liebherr, which builds engines and hydraulic components in Bulle, the pharmaceutical group UCB in Bulle and the aerospace-sensor maker Meggitt in Villars-sur-Glâne; the utility Groupe E has its head office in Granges-Paccot.

Fribourg has the highest board-paralysis risk in Switzerland in ValIndex's 2026 study: for 2,503 of 4,774 audited companies (52.4%), no one would be left able to sign if the principal signatory died. KPMG puts the maximum effective corporate tax rate at 14.12% for 2026 and the top income tax rate at 35.26%. The median gross monthly wage in the Espace Mittelland region was CHF 6,964 in 2024.