Rafz is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

in the district of

Bülach , neighboring_municipalities= Bachenbülach, Eglisau, Embrach, Glattfelden, Hochfelden, Höri, Rorbas, Winkel , twintowns = Santeramo in Colle (Italy) Bülach () is an historic town and a municipality in Switzerland in the cant ...

in the northwest of the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ente ...

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Rafz was first mentioned in 1413 as ''Rafsa''.

Geography

Rafz has an area of . Of this area, 52% is used for agricultural purposes, while 33.1% is forested. The rest of the land (14.9%) is settled. Rafz has border crossings into Germany at Schluchenberg with Baltersweil in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, Germany to the north of town; Rafz town with Lottstetten town also in Baden-Württemberg, and at Solgen with Lottstetten.

Demographics

Rafz has a population (as of ) of . , 14.7% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 18.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (91.1%), with Italian being second most common (2.5%) and Albanian being third (2.5%). In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 44% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, ...

(18.3%), the CSP (10.2%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

(8.9%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 11.7%. In Rafz about 79.5% of the population (between age 25 and 64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied art ...

''). Rafz has an unemployment rate of 1.95%. , there were 150 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 38 businesses involved in this sector. The

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construc ...

employs 459 people and there are 40 businesses in this sector. The

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

employs 536 people, with 91 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 30-Jul-2009

Historical population

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width: auto height:200 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:40 bottom:20 right:35 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:800 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:200 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width: 35 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1634 from:start till:412 text:"412" bar:1722 from:start till:827 text:"827" bar:1800 from:start till:837 text:"837" bar:1850 from:start till:1583 text:"1583" bar:1900 from:start till:1436 text:"1436" bar:1950 from:start till:1690 text:"1690" bar:2000 from:start till:3395 text:"3395" bar:2018 from:start till:4576 text:"4576"

Transport

Rafz railway station Rafz is a railway station in the Swiss canton of Zürich and municipality of Rafz. The station is located on the Eglisau to Neuhausen line of the Swiss Federal Railway (SBB) that crosses the international border twice on its route between the S ...

is the terminus of Zurich S-Bahn line S9 from Zurich, and an intermediate stop on the S22 between

and

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimate ...

. It is a 38-minute ride from

Zürich Hauptbahnhof Zürich Hauptbahnhof (often shortened to Zürich HB, or just HB; ''Zürich Main Station'' or ''Zürich Central Station'') is the largest railway station in Switzerland. Zürich is a major railway hub, with services to and from across Switzerland ...

References

External links

*
Gemeinde Rafz
��Official Web site (in German) {{Authority control Germany–Switzerland border crossings Municipalities of the canton of Zürich