Affoltern am Albis


Affoltern am Albis is a town and a municipality in the district of Affoltern in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.
The official language of Affoltern is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.

History

Affoltern is first mentioned in 1190 as Afiltre.

Geography

Affoltern has an area of. Of this area, 45.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 25% is settled and the remainder is non-productive.
The municipality is located west of the Albis hills in the moraine landscape around the Reuss. It was created in the 19th Century through the merger of Ober- and Unteraffoltern, Zwillikon and Loo-Fehrenbach.

Demographics

Affoltern has a population of., 25.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 9.8%. Most of the population speaks German, with Italian being second most common and Serbo-Croatian being third.
In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 37.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS, the FDP and the CSP.
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 25.2% of the population, while adults make up 62.4% and seniors make up 12.3%. In Affoltern about 71% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education.
Affoltern has an unemployment rate of 2.8%., there were 85 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 33 businesses involved in this sector. 1238 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 126 businesses in this sector. 3533 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 441 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:
yearpopulation
until about 1700100-250
17361,060
18501,855
19002,779
19503,484
200010,314

Transport

is a stop and a terminal station of the Zürich S-Bahn on the lines S5 and S14 respectively. Its train station is a 28-minute ride from Zürich Hauptbahnhof.

Notable people