Volketswil

Geography

Volketswil has an area of 14 km² (5.4 sq mi). Of this area, 42.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 24.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 32.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.8%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). In 1996 housing and buildings made up 22.4% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (9.9%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 0.2% of the area. As of 2007 30.1% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.

Demographics

Volketswil has a population (as of 31 December 2016) of 18,582. As of 2007, 22.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. As of 2008 the gender distribution of the population was 50% male and 50% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 19.4%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (85.3%), with Italian being second most common ( 3.1%) and Albanian being third ( 2.5%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 48.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (13.9%), the FDP (10.7%) and the CSP (10%).

The age distribution of the population (as of 2000) is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 68.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 7.4%. In Volketswil about 76.8% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). There are 5988 households in Volketswil.

Volketswil has an unemployment rate of 3.3%. As of 2005, there were 127 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 39 businesses involved in this sector. 3270 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 180 businesses in this sector. 5698 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 607 businesses in this sector. As of 2007 36.7% of the working population were employed full-time, and 63.3% were employed part-time.

As of 2008 there were 4898 Catholics and 5868 Protestants in Volketswil. In the 2000 census, religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the census, 43.5% were some type of Protestant, with 41.1% belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church and 2.3% belonging to other Protestant churches. 32.2% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 7.6% were Muslim, 9.4% belonged to another religion (not listed), 2.7% did not give a religion, and 11.3% were atheist or agnostic.