Swiss voters have narrowly defeated an anti-immigration initiative that aimed to limit the nation's population to 10 million by 2050.

Voters in Switzerland on Sunday narrowly rejected a divisive anti-immigration proposal to cap the country's population, which had sparked warnings of "chaos". Nearly 55 percent of Swiss voters rejected the initiative put forward by the hard-right Swiss People's Party (SVP), which sought to stop the Alpine nation's population -- currently 9.1 million -- going above 10 million before 2050.