| Subject Name: | Wetzikon |
| Municipality Type: | municipality, town |
| Canton: | Zurich |
| Iso-Code-Region: | CH-ZH |
| Coordinates: | 47.3167°N 56°W |
| Postal Code: | 8620, 8623 |
| Municipality Code: | 0121 |
| Area: | 16.73 |
| Elevation: | 535 |
| Website: | www.wetzikon.ch |
| Mayor: | Pascal Bassu |
| Mayor Asof: | July 2022 |
| Mayor Party: | SP |
| Mayor Title: | Stadtpräsident |
| Parliament Name: | Parlament |
| Parliament Number Of Members: | 36 |
| Executive Name: | Stadtrat |
| Executive Number Of Members: | 7 |
| Places: | Ettenhausen, Kempten, Medikon, Oberwetzikon, Robank, Robenhausen, Unterwetzikon |
| Twintowns: | Melnik (Czech Republic), Badolato (Italy) |
Wetzikon is a small town in the Zurich Highlands (Zürcher Oberland) area of Switzerland, in the district of Hinwil in the canton of Zürich.
The municipality Wetzikon has an area of 16.7km2. Of this area, 42.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 17.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 27.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (12.1%) is non-productive (streams, lakes and non-productive vegetation). housing and buildings made up 20% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (7.9%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 3.3% of the area. 30.5% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.
It is located near Lake Pfäffikon in the Zürcher Oberland, between Uster and Rapperswil-Jona.
The Robenhauser Ried wetland is a nature reserve of national importance and is situated between Seegräben, Kempten and Irgenhausen covering an area of about 2km2.
Wetzikon has a population (as of) of ., 22.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals., the gender distribution of the population was 49.2% male and 50.8% female. Over the last 10 years, the population has grown at a rate of 18.8%. Most of the population speaks German (83.8%), with Italian being second most common (5.7%) and Albanian being third (1.9%).
| Nationalities in Wetzikon | End of 2010[1] | End of 2011[2] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 76,8 % | 76,5 % | ||
| 5,5 % | 5,2 % | ||
| 3,9 % | 3,9 % | ||
| 2,4 % | 2,6 % | ||
| 1,7 % | 1,7 % | ||
| 1,8 % | 1,7 % | ||
| Kosovo | 1,2 % | 1,4 % | |
| 1,1 % | 1,1 % |
In the 2007 election, the most popular party was the SVP which received 37.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (16.1%), the CSP (12.2%) and the Green Party (10.5%).
The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15%. There are 7929 households in Wetzikon. there were 6385 Catholics and 7772 Protestants in Wetzikon. In the, religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the 2000 census, 45% were some type of Protestant, with 40.3% belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church and 4.7% belonging to other Protestant churches. 31.3% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 6.5% were Muslim, 8.7% belonged to another religion (not listed), 3.6% did not give a religion, and 10.6% were atheist or agnostic.
The Kantonschule Zürcher Oberland (KZO),[3] or the "Kanti" as the gymnasium level learning institution is known in Swiss German, is based in Wetzikon due to its central location in the Zürich Oberland, as well as the Zürcher Oberländer newspaper and the annual ZOM trade fair.[4]
The regional hospital, the Gesundheitsversorgung Zürcher Oberland [5] is also located there.
Wetzikon has an unemployment rate of 2.9%., there were 134 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 41 businesses involved in this sector. 3486 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 255 businesses in this sector. 7054 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 838 businesses in this sector.[6] 43.8% of the working population were employed full-time, and 56.2% were employed part-time.[7]
In Wetzikon about 69.4% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).[6]
The prehistoric settlement Wetzikon–Robenhausen at the Robenhausen wetland which was discovered and researched by Jakob Messikommer is part of the serial site Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps, an UNESCO World Heritage Site.[8]
There are two railway stations within the municipality. Wetzikon railway station is a node of the Zürich S-Bahn on the lines S3, S14, S15 and S5. Kempten railway station is on the S3 line only. The town is a 20-minute (S5) ride from Zürich Hauptbahnhof. In addition, the Dampfbahn-Verein Zürcher Oberland heritage railway provides seasonal excursion service at .
The oldest surviving document about the name Wetzikon is from the year 1044, where three nobles of "Wezzinchova" are mentioned; before that the village and castle were known by the name Ratpoldskilch.[9] Older history is known from excavations of prehistoric pile dwellings in Robenhausen and a Roman villa rustica in Kempten.[10]