Bäretswil is a

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

in the district of

Hinwil Hinwil is a municipality in the district of Hinwil in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. History The village Hinwil from which the later municipality took its name is first mentioned in 745 as ''Hunichinwilari'', in a donation made by Bea ...

in 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 Zürich () i ...

in Switzerland.

History

Bäretswil is first mentioned in 741 as ''Berofovilare''. In 745 it was mentioned as ''Perolfeswilari''.

Geography

Bäretswil has an area of . Of this area, 51.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 39.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 8.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.2%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). housing and buildings made up 5.4% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (2.8%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 0.2% of the area. 4.7% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction. The municipality is located in the hills between the Glatt and

Töss Valley The Töss Valley (German: ''Tösstal'') is a valley and a region of the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. Geography The valley embraces parts of the Zürcher Oberland including the districts of Hinwil, Pfäffikon and Winterthur, in additio ...

s. It includes the villages of Bäretswil and Adetswil as well as the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Bettswil, Wappenswil, Hof-Neuthal, Tanne and Klein Bäretswil and scattered individual homes. The old cotton mill, pictured, now houses museums o
spinning
an
weaving
machinery.

Demographics

Bäretswil has a population (as of ) of . , 8.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. the gender distribution of the population was 49.9% male and 50.1% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 10.2%. Most of the population () speaks German (93.9%), with Italian being second most common ( 1.7%) and Albanian being third ( 1.3%). In the 2007 election, the most popular party was the SVP which received 46.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the

CSP CSP may refer to: Education * College Student Personnel, an academic discipline * Commonwealth Supported Place, a category in Australian education * Concordia University (Saint Paul, Minnesota), US Organizations * Caledonian Steam Packet Compa ...

(16.8%), the SPS (9%) and the FDP (8.3%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.4% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 10.9%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Bäretswil about 80.3% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

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 ar ...

''). There are 1649 households in Bäretswil. Bäretswil has an unemployment rate of 1.37%. , there were 204 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 73 businesses involved in this sector. 312 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 constructio ...

and there are 70 businesses in this sector. 549 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 secon ...

, with 120 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 06-Aug-2009 47.6% of the working population were employed full-time, and 52.4% were employed part-time.
accessed 4 August 2009 there were 898

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and 2444

Protestants Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

in Bäretswil. In the , religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the 2000 census, 60.4% were some type of Protestant, with 56.1% belonging to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

and 4.3% belonging to other Protestant churches. 22.1% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 0% were Muslim, 3.4% belonged to another religion (not listed), 2.9% did not give a religion, and 10.7% were atheist or agnostic. The historical population is given in the following table: : Population before and after the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

Transport

The municipality had two railway stations, and , on the Uerikon–Bauma line. There is no longer regular service on this line, but the

Dampfbahn-Verein Zürcher Oberland The Dampfbahn-Verein Zürcher Oberland (DVZO) is a heritage railway association based in the Swiss canton of Zurich Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative div ...

heritage railway operates seasonal excursion service.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baretswil Municipalities of the canton of Zürich