Hofstetten is first mentioned in 914 as Pipineshovestetin. Until 2003 it was known as Hofstetten bei Elgg.
Geography
Hofstetten has an area of. Of this area, 49.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 45.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.2% is settled and the remainder is non-productive. housing and buildings made up 2.1% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest. Of the total unproductive area, water made up 0.1% of the area. 1.8% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction. The municipality is located between the Schauenberg and the Eulach river valley. It consists of the small villages of Hofstetten, Huggenberg, Geretswil, Wenzikon and Dickbuch.
Demographics
Hofstetten has a population of. , 6.7% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. the gender distribution of the population was 51.8% male and 48.2% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 0.5%. Most of the population speaks German , with French being second most common and Italian being third. In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 62% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CSP, the Green Party and the FDP. The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 30.3% of the population, while adults make up 55.8% and seniors make up 13.8%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Hofstetten about 81.5% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education. There are 154 households in Hofstetten. Hofstetten has an unemployment rate of 1.27%. , there were 51 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 24 businesses involved in this sector. 31 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 8 businesses in this sector. 25 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 9 businesses in this sector. 39.6% of the working population were employed full-time, and 60.4% were employed part-time. there were 52 Catholics and 293 Protestants in Hofstetten. In the 2000 census, religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the, 77.6% were some type of Protestant, with 70.6% belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church and 6.9% belonging to other Protestant churches. 11.2% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 0% were Muslim, 0.5% belonged to another religion, 0.2% did not give a religion, and 10% were atheist or agnostic. The historical population is given in the following table:
