Oberengstringen 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 go ...

in the district of

Dietikon Dietikon is the fifth biggest city of the canton of Zürich in Switzerland, after Zürich, Winterthur, Uster and Dübendorf. It is the capital of the same-named district of Dietikon and part of the Zürich metropolitan area. Geography The i ...

in the canton of

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

in Switzerland, located in the

Limmat Valley The Limmat Valley (German: ''Limmattal'') is a river valley and a region in the cantons of Zürich and Aargau in Switzerland. Geography The Limmat () is a long river located in the cantons of Zürich (ZH) and Aargau (AG). It is the co ...

(German: ''Limmattal'').

History

Oberengstringen is first mentioned in 870 as ''Enstelingon''. In 1306 it was mentioned as ''Obren Enstringen''.

Geography

Oberengstringen has an area of . Of this area, 23.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 26.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 47.4% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (2.8%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). housing and buildings made up 39% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (8.9%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 2.8% of the area. 46% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction. The village is located on the right bank of the Limmat on the road between Zürich through

Höngg Höngg is a quarter in district 10 in Zürich. It was formerly a municipality of its own, having been incorporated into Zürich in 1934. The quarter has a population of 21,186, distributed across an area of 6.98 km². Höngg is renowned f ...

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...

. From the 1950s to the 1970s it quickly grew into a suburb of Zürich.

Werdinsel and Limmatauen

''Limmatauen Werdhölzli'' is a protected forest and river area, partially situated in the

of Oberengstringen and between the Limmat weir at the Höngg power plant. Set under protection in 1945, the long section of the Limmat and the Werdinsel were renatured, what enhanced the

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

, and thus the quality of the river landscape. In cooperation with the Canton of Zurich and the municipalities of Oberengstringen and Zürich, that section of the river was renewed. The access to the Limmat and the hiking path towards the Fahr Abbey was improved and the area was widened for pedestrians and cyclists. Orientation boards inform on the endemic flora and fauna, so the

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...

may be crossed over a long wooden bridge those material consists of the

urban forest An urban forest is a forest, or a collection of trees, that grow within a city, town or a suburb. In a wider sense, it may include any kind of woody plant vegetation growing in and around human settlements. As opposed to a forest park, whose ec ...

. After nearly a year of construction, the project was officially presented to the public on 20 September 2013. The costs of 9.4 million Swiss Francs are provided by the city and cantonal governments, and some companies in collaboration with the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

Switzerland, which claims the ''place as very important to our rivers and streams, so that they can create their very structure''.

Demographics

Oberengstringen has a population (as of ) of . , 24.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. 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 5.6%. Most of the population () speaks German (81.8%), with Italian being second most common ( 4.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 1.7%). In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 36.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (19.5%), the FDP (15.3%) and the CVP (11.1%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.4%. In Oberengstringen about 75.2% 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 2882 households in Oberengstringen. Oberengstringen has an unemployment rate of 3.01%. , there were 10 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 274 people are employed in 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 constructi ...

and there are 46 businesses in this sector. 977 people are employed in 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 ...

, with 196 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 05-Aug-2009 66.7% of the working population were employed full-time, and 33.3% were employed part-time.
accessed 4 August 2009 there were 2291 Catholics and 1923 Protestants in Oberengstringen. In the , religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the 2000 census, 36.7% were some type of Protestant, with 35.1% belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church and 1.6% belonging to other Protestant churches. 37% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 0% were Muslim, 8.8% belonged to another religion (not listed), 3.7% did not give a religion, and 12.8% were atheist or agnostic. The historical population is given in the following table:

References

External links

Oberengstringen Online
Official website {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Zürich