WalkablyIs Zurich walkable?
This page covers greater Zurich: 726,000 people, including Dübendorf and Dietikon.
In Zurich, the walk to a school is the strong point: 3 minutes for the typical building, much better than most of Europe. Its weakest point against Europe is the walk to public transport, and even that is 3 minutes for the typical building, better than most of Europe. Walking is easiest in Hottingen (score 83) and hardest in Herrliberg (score 49): a gap of 34 points.
The walk to eight daily needs
The typical walk is the middle value: half of the buildings in Zurich have a shorter walk, and half have a longer one. The words compare it with every place where people live in the 20 countries on the map, so the same minutes get the same word everywhere.
| Need | Typical walk | Compared with Europe | Buildings with one within 20 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 5 min | Better than most | 99% |
| Food and drink | 4 min | Much better than most | 100% |
| Shops | 3 min | Much better than most | 99% |
| Health | 6 min | Better than most | 95% |
| School | 3 min | Much better than most | 99% |
| Parks | 3 min | Much better than most | 99% |
| Culture | 7 min | Better than most | 95% |
| Public transport | 3 min | Better than most | 100% |
Compared with the rest of the country
The map is cut into six-sided cells 55 m across, and every cell that a street passes through gets a score: we call these street cells. We sort all 2,271,489 street cells in Switzerland from hardest to easiest to walk, then cut the list into five equal groups, called fifths. In Zurich, 76% of the street cells are in the most walkable fifth, more than the 20% of an average place.
| Fifth of the street cells in Switzerland | Bar | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| Most walkable fifth | 76% | |
| Second fifth | 16% | |
| Middle fifth | 5% | |
| Fourth fifth | 2% | |
| Least walkable fifth | 1% |
The city at a glance
On the map, click any street to see its score and the walk to each need.
The most and least walkable areas
Each street cell takes the name of the nearest neighbourhood, village or town on OpenStreetMap, up to 1.5 km away. We rank the 50 areas where people live: each has at least 200 street cells and 500 buildings, and at least a quarter as many buildings per street cell as Zurich as a whole, so ports, hill parks and farmland drop out. Click a name to open it on the map.
Even Herrliberg, the least walkable area here, has 65% of its street cells in the most walkable fifth in Switzerland. Zurich walks far better than most of the country, so even its weakest areas beat most other places.
Most walkable
| Area | Typical score | In the top fifth |
|---|---|---|
| 83 | 80% | |
| 80 | 99% | |
| 80 | 92% | |
| 80 | 100% | |
| 78 | 100% |
Least walkable
| Area | Typical score | In the top fifth |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | 65% | |
| 49 | 61% | |
| 51 | 66% | |
| 52 | 57% | |
| 54 | 64% |
Cities like Zurich
These three cities come closest to Zurich in number of people and typical score, from any of the 20 countries. Zurich scores higher than 2 of them and lower than 1.
| City | Country | People | Typical score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Düsseldorf | Germany | 619,000 | 71 |
| Manchester | United Kingdom | 547,000 | 70 |
| Hanover | Germany | 522,000 | 70 |
What this page covers
This page uses the area Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, calls greater Zurich: the city and the towns that have grown into it. Besides Zurich itself, it takes in Dübendorf, Dietikon, Horgen, Opfikon, Schlieren, Kloten and smaller places. About 726,000 people live there (2025 figure). Inside it we scored 30,415 street cells with 98,899 buildings in them.
Every number here comes from the same scores as the map. The score runs from 0 to 100. The walk to eight daily needs on real streets makes up 60% of it, and how pleasant the streets are makes up 40%. The comparison with Europe counts every place by its buildings, 163,668,724 buildings in all. How the score works.