Lachen (

High Alemannic High Alemannic is a dialect of Alemannic German spoken in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg and in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Language area The High Alemannic dialects are spoken in Liechtenstein and in most of German-speaking ...

: ''Lache'') is a

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

March District March District is a district in Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter t ...

in the

canton of Schwyz The canton of Schwyz (german: Kanton Schwyz rm, Chantun Sviz; french: Canton de Schwytz; it, Canton Svitto) is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred on ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

History

Lachen is first mentioned around 1217–22 as ''de Lachun''.

Geography

Lachen has an area of , as of 2006. Of this area, 26.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.8% is forested. Of the remaining land, 62.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (5.4%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The municipality is located on a delta of the Wägi river in the upper section of

Lake Zurich __NOTOC__ Lake Zurich ( Swiss German/Alemannic: ''Zürisee''; German: ''Zürichsee''; rm, Lai da Turitg) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zürich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or ''Zürichsee'' can be used to ...

. It is the smallest municipality in the Canton of Schwyz.

Demographics

Lachen has a population of . , 27.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 14.1%. The majority of the population speaks German (84.9%), followed by Italian (5.1%) and Albanian (2.4%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 02-Sep-2009 the gender distribution of the population was 49.1% male and 50.9% female. 1293 people or 20.6% of the population is under 19. 1950 people or 31.1% are 20 to 39, and 2,055 people or 32.8% are 40 to 64. 489 people or 7.8% are 65 to 74. There are 347 people or 5.5% who are 70 to 79 and 138 people or 2.20% of the population who are over 80. There is one person in Lachen who is over 100 years old.Canton Schwyz Statistics
accessed 27 August 2009 there are 2,817 households, of which 1,039 households (or about 36.9%) contain only one person. 115 or about 4.1% are large households, with at least five occupants. In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 43.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (19.4%), the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

(19.1%) and the CVP (13.9%). In Lachen about 69.2% of the adult population (between 25 and 64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education 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 arts ...

''). Lachen has an unemployment rate of 1.98%. , there were 61 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 859 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 construction. ...

and there are 84 businesses in this sector. 2,686 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 second ...

, with 370 businesses in this sector. According to the , 4,141 or 66.0% of the population are

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, while 984 or 15.7% belonged 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 ...

. Of the rest of the population, there are 179 individuals (or about 2.85% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are less than 5 individuals who belong to another Christian church. There are less than 5 individuals who are

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and 413 (or about 6.58% of the population) who are

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. There are 38 individuals (or about 0.61% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 336 (or about 5.36% of the population) are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 178 individuals (or about 2.84% of the population) did not answer the question. The historic population is given in the following table:

Weather

Lachen has an average of 149.1 days of rain per year and receives on average of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

. The wettest month is August during which time Lachen receives an average of of precipitation. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 14.2 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 14.7, but with only of precipitation. The driest month of the year is January with an average of of precipitation over 14.2 days., the weather station elevation is 426 meters above sea level.

Transportation

The municipality is located on the

A3 motorway This is a list of roads designated A3. Roads entries are sorted in the countries alphabetical order. * A003 road (Argentina), a road connecting the junction with National Route 9 and Camino de Cintura to Tigre * ''A3 road (Australia)'' may refer ...

Lachen railway station Lachen railway station is a railway station in the Swiss canton of Schwyz and municipality of Lachen. The station is located on the Lake Zurich left-bank railway line, owned by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). Layout and connections Lachen ...

is a stop on the

Zürich S-Bahn The Zürich S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Zürich) system is a network of rail lines that has been incrementally expanded to cover the ZVV area, which comprises the entire canton of Zürich and portions of neighbouring cantons (Aargau, Glarus, ...

services S2, which runs every half-hour between

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

and

Ziegelbrücke Ziegelbrücke is a village in Switzerland. Ziegelbrücke is shared by the municipalities of Niederurnen in the canton of Glarus and Schänis in the canton of St. Gallen. Geography and political situation The village of Ziegelbrücke is divided ...

, and S25, which runs hourly between Zürich and Linthal. The journey time to Zürich is between 30 and 40 minutes.

Famous citizens

Joachim Raff Joseph Joachim Raff (27 May 182224 or 25 June 1882) was a German-Swiss composer, pedagogue and pianist. Biography Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitme ...

(1822 in Lachen – 1882) a German-Swiss composer, teacher and pianist *

Alessandro Spezialetti Alessandro Spezialetti (born 14 January 1975 in Lachen, Switzerland) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who competed professionally between 1997 and 2012. He was known as a lieutenant, or top domestique in Grand Tours. Majo ...

(born 1975 in Lachen) an Italian former professional road bicycle racer *

Maya Bamert Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...

(born 1979 in Lachen) a Swiss bobsledder, competed at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

* Josip Drmić (born 1992 in Lachen) a Swiss professional footballer * Colin Grob (born 2002 in Lachen) a famous Swiss-Canadian programmer, created Fortnite Creative Finder

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Schwyz Cities in Switzerland Populated places on Lake Zurich