St. Peter, Switzerland

St. Peter
St. Peter
Former municipality
	Coat of arms
	Location of St. Peter
	St. Peter St. Peter
	Coordinates: 46°50′N 9°38′E / 46.833°N 9.633°E
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Graubünden
District	Plessur
Area
• Total	690 km2 (270 sq mi)
Elevation	688 m (2,257 ft)
Population (2007)
• Total	168
• Density	0.24/km2 (0.63/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)	7028
SFOS number	3930
ISO 3166 code	CH-GR
Website	www.st-peter.ch ; SFSO statistics

St. Peter (Romansh: Son Peder) is a village in the district of Plessur in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. An independent municipality before, it merged on 1 January 2008 with neighboring Pagig to form the municipality of St. Peter-Pagig.^[1]

History

St. Peter is first referred to as a village in the late Middle Ages. The village church is first mentioned in 831. The church and the village section of Laeschgas belonged to Pfäfers Abbey.^[2]

Geography

St. Peter has an area, as of 2006^[update], of 6.9 km² (2.7 sq mi). Of this area, 61% is used for agricultural purposes, while 30.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 4.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (4.7%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).^[3]

The village is located in the Schanfigg sub-district of the Plessur district in the northern slope of the mid-Schanfigg at an elevation of 1,160 m (3,810 ft). It consists of the village of St. Peter which is made up of two sections. In 2008 St. Peter merged with Pagig to form St. Peter-Pagig.

Nearby is the Sankt Peter-Molinis railway station, on the Chur-Arosa railway line, which also serves Molinis.

Demographics

St. Peter has a population (as of 2007^[update]) of 168, of which 15.5% are foreign nationals.^[4] Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 8.4%. Most of the population (as of 2000^[update]) speaks German (95.5%), with Albanian being second most common ( 2.6%) and French being third ( 0.6%).^[3]

As of 2000^[update], the gender distribution of the population was 54.2% male and 45.8% female.^[4] The age distribution, as of 2004^[update], in St. Peter is; 7 children or 4.5% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 16 teenagers or 10.4% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 13 people or 8.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 15 people or 9.7% are between 30 and 39, 25 people or 16.2% are between 40 and 49, and 26 people or 16.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 27 people or 17.5% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 19 people or 12.3% are between 70 and 79, there are 4 people or 2.6% who are between 80 and 89 there are 2 people or 1.3% who are between 90 and 99.^[5]

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 67.9% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (13.5%), the SP (9.3%) and the CVP (4.2%).^[3]

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In St. Peter about 67% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule).^[3]

St. Peter has an unemployment rate of 0.43%. As of 2005^[update], there were 6 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 2 businesses involved in this sector. 14 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 3 businesses in this sector. 18 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 9 businesses in this sector.^[3]

The historical population is given in the following table:^[2]