Why PLZHub uses different years for population, taxes, and maps

The mismatch is deliberate

If you look closely at 1000 Lausanne 25, 8001 Zurich, or 1040 Echallens, you will notice the years don't line up. All three pages use 2024 demographics, 2025 tax scenarios, and current 2026 swisstopo postcode geometry.

This isn't a caching error. The years don't match because the Swiss federal offices don't publish on the same calendar.

Who publishes what

The Federal Statistical Office (BFS) tells us who lives in a postcode area: population, households, ages, and nationalities. The Federal Tax Administration (ESTV) gives us the municipal tax multipliers and scenario-based rates. Swisstopo draws the lines: which localities belong to the postcode, how it overlaps with municipalities, and the elevation context.

If PLZHub forced all these numbers into one uniform year—say, labeling the whole page "2025"—we would have to lie about where the demographics or the map borders came from. It is more honest to show the real publication year for each block of data.

Image: Neuchatel tour de l'office federal de la statistique.jpg, Wikimedia Commons.

How to read the pages

1000 Lausanne 25 is a good example. Its demographics are labeled 2024, its tax block says 2025 and is marked as an estimate, and its borders use 2026 geometry. The page answers three different questions using three different official series.

8001 Zurich uses the exact same source years. The difference is structure: Zurich 8001 fits perfectly inside one municipality. You don't see an estimate flag there, but you still see the mixed years.

Then there is 1040 Echallens and 6052 Hergiswil NW. Echallens is split across three municipalities. Hergiswil is essentially a 1-to-1 match. Both show the standard 2024/2025/2026 year mix. The year tells you when the government published the data. The estimate flag tells you how cleanly that data fits the postcode boundaries. They are entirely separate concepts.

Image: Federalpalace-dome.jpg, Swiss Federal Assembly, Wikimedia Commons.

When it matters

You can use these mixed-year pages to compare towns, build a shortlist, or figure out if a neighborhood fits your tax profile. The relative differences between places hold up fine across these slightly misaligned release schedules.

But you cannot use them to file your taxes or sign a lease. When a decision becomes binding, you have to use the official cantonal calculator or municipal register anyway. PLZHub gives you the orientation; the local authority gives you the final bill.