Help me with my back-of-the-envelope calculation.
There are currently about [4 million households in Switzerland](https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/bevoelkerung/zukuenftige-entwicklung/haushaltsszenarien.html). It’s predicted that this might increase up to 5 million by 2050. Households tend to have fewer individuals in them as families get smaller, split, and the demographic change see more elderly couples living without their kids and young professionals immigrating as adults so the number of households is likely to increase faster than the population.
The American Dream of ~~affluent whites~~ everyone owning a detached family house with a yard to store possessions like trampolines would mean each of these would need a plot of land. Let’s assume a modest 300sqm plot per house.
The total surface needed for these 5 million households to each live in such a house (ignoring all the financial aspects) would be 1.5 billion sqm or 1’500 km2.
[The current area of constructible land in the country is 2’343 km2.](https://www.are.admin.ch/are/de/home/raumentwicklung-und-raumplanung/grundlagen-und-daten/bauzonenstatistik-schweiz.html)
Of course it’s very inefficient way to live so we would need massive extension of roads, we would have choking traffic, etc. But if the Americans can support this then surely we could too.
Thoughts?
by ChezDudu
6 comments
what
OP’s face when he discovers apartment buildings
The American dream is not something desirable to many people.
YES. Exactly.
A+ perfect shitposting 🙂
300 square meters are way too many for a city home