Stäfa is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. Geography Stäfa has an area of . Of this area, 46.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 18.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 34% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). housing and buildings made up 26.7% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest (7.2%). Of the total unproductive area, water (streams and lakes) made up 0.5% of the area. 35.8% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction. It is located near Rapperswil on the north bank of the Lake Zürich in the Pfannenstiel region. Named after the Scottish Island of Staffa by a monk from Iona, in the local dialect it is called Stäfa. The early history of Stäfa is closely linked to Einsiedeln Abbey. 972 King Otto II confirmed in documents possessions of the abbey on the lake, including Steveia (Stäfa). The villages of Kehlhof and Uerikon are politically part of the town. Stäfa is linked with the German poet Goethe who once stayed overnight in the town. Demographics Stäfa has a population (as of ) of . , 18.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. , the gender distribution of the population was 48.4% male and 51.6% female. Over the last 5 years, the population has grown by 4.1%. Most of the population () speaks German (88.6%), with Italian being second most common ( 3.3%) and Albanian being third ( 1.4%). In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 32.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS (20.1%), the FDP (16.2%) and the CSP (11%). The age distribution of the population () is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 20.7% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63.1% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.2%. In Stäfa about 80.5% 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 5179 households in Stäfa. Stäfa has an unemployment rate of 2.14%. , there were 153 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 34 businesses involved in this sector. 1592 people are employed in the secondary sector and