Bad Ragaz is first mentioned circa 843 as Ragaces.
Geography
Bad Ragaz has an area,, of. Of this area, 45.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 34.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9.6% is settled and the remainder is non-productive. The municipality is in the Sarganserland Wahlkreis of Bezirk Sargans. The spa and recreation village is in the south-east of the canton at the end of the Tamina valley. It lies on the north-south and east-west routes over the Graubünden Alps. Until 1937 Bad Ragaz was known as Ragaz.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure a Dove volant displayed Argent beaked and membered Or having a sprig Gules in the beak.
Demographics
Bad Ragaz has a population of. , about 25.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population,, 122 are from Germany, 144 are from Italy, 508 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 59 are from Austria, 1 person is from Turkey, and 312 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown by 8.3%. Most of the population speaks German, with Serbo-Croatian being second most common and Italian being third. Of the Swiss national languages, 4,184 speak German, 30 people speak French, 141 people speak Italian, and 45 people speak Romansh. The age distribution,, in Bad Ragaz is:
Age
0–9
10–19
20–29
30–39
40–49
50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99
Numbers
503
626
591
810
756
640
476
318
174
35
10.2%
12.7%
12.0%
16.4%
15.3%
13.0%
9.7%
6.5%
3.5%
0.7%
there were 765 persons who were living alone in a private dwelling. There were 1,181 persons who were part of a couple without children, and 2,390 who were part of a couple with children. There were 290 people who lived in single parent home, while there are 36 persons who were adult children living with one or both parents, 24 persons who lived in a household made up of relatives, 35 who lived household made up of unrelated persons, and 208 who are either institutionalized or live in another type of collective housing. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 40.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP, the FDP and the SP. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Bad Ragaz about 68.9% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education. Out of the total population in Bad Ragaz,, the highest education level completed by 1,070 people was Primary, while 1,975 have completed Secondary, 558 have attended a Tertiary school, and 175 are not in school. The remainder did not answer this question. The historical population is given in the following table:
, Bad Ragaz had an unemployment rate of 1.62%. , there were 103 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 23 businesses involved in this sector. 687 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 71 businesses in this sector. 1,911 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 244 businesses in this sector. the average unemployment rate was 3.0%. There were 331 businesses in the municipality of which 64 were involved in the secondary sector of the economy while 248 were involved in the third. there were 1,510 residents who worked in the municipality, while 1,217 residents worked outside Bad Ragaz and 1,189 people commuted into the municipality for work. The headquarters of the gas analysis, detection, and control instrument manufacturing companyINFICON is located in Bad Ragaz.
Religion
From the, 2,862 or 58.1% were Roman Catholic, while 1,105 or 22.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. There was 1 individual of the Christian Catholic faith; 249 individuals who belonged to the Orthodox Church; and 64 individuals who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 Jewish individuals, and 166 Islamic. There were 42 individuals who belonged to another church ; 277 belonged to no church, were agnostic or atheist; and 161 individuals did not answer the question.
Between 1961 and 1990 Bad Ragaz had an average of 120.5 days of rain or snow per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was August during which time Bad Ragaz receives an average of of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 12.7 days. The driest month of the year was October with an average of of precipitation over 12.7 days.
