Schaffhausen

Schaffhausen lies north of the Rhine and is bordered almost entirely by Germany. The canton has 90,087 residents, 49,147 jobs and 5,953 enterprises, and produced GDP of CHF 8.5 billion in 2022. GDP per head of CHF 100,959 was the seventh-highest of the 26 cantons. Employment grew by 1.2% in 2024, among the faster rates in Switzerland, while unemployment rose to 3.1% in August 2026 from 2.8% a year earlier.

Schaffhausen combines an industrial tradition with the Swiss or European head offices of international groups. Chemicals and pharmaceuticals employ 2,266 people, 3.2 times the Swiss share and the second-highest concentration after Basel-Stadt, with Johnson & Johnson's Cilag plant in the city; employment in the sector rose by 16.3% between 2019 and 2024. Plastics, metals and metal products (5.6% of jobs, 2.4 times the Swiss share), machinery (1.7 times) and electronics, instruments and watches (1.6 times) are also above average. Georg Fischer, the piping-systems group, and the watchmaker IWC were founded in Schaffhausen; SIG, which makes aseptic carton packaging, and the medical-supplies company IVF Hartmann are based in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, and TE Connectivity and Garmin have Swiss companies in the canton.

KPMG puts Schaffhausen's top income tax rate at 27.24% for 2026, down from 27.83% in 2025 and the seventh-lowest in Switzerland; the maximum effective corporate tax rate is 15.08%. ValIndex's studies find the lowest share of single-owner GmbHs of any canton (40.8%) and the second-lowest board-paralysis risk (11.8%), both on small samples.