Before moving to SF, I lived in Lausanne, Switzerland for about a decade, so I end up comparing both quite often.
Like most cities in Switzerland, Lausanne is small. It only just crossed the 150,000 threshold. But it is a relatively cosmopolitan city, with two well-recognized universities, plenty of companies and with more than 42% of the population being non-Swiss.
One huge difference between Lausanne and SF is the density and the lived experience that creates. I lived in the Cité, the medieval downtown neighborhood of five- and six-story buildings, with a density around 10,500 people/km2. The core of Lausanne has a density of almost 8,000 people/km2. I didn't know anyone with a car and everyone had a bus pass.
