Lachen (

High Alemannic High Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic German spoken in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg and in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Intelligibility of these dialects to non-Alemannic speakers tends to be limited. Language area The High ...

: ''Lache'') is a

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

March District March District is a district in Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The coat of arms of the district is ''gules, an annulet sable'' — a black ring on a red background. It has a population of (as of ). The current ''Bezirksammann'' of the district is ...

in the

canton of Schwyz The canton of Schwyz ( ; ; ; ) is a Cantons of Switzerland, canton in central Switzerland between the Swiss Alps, Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred on and named after the town of Schwyz. It is one ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

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 highest point is 420 meters above sea level, the deepest point is 406 meters above sea level. The municipality area has a size of 519 ha (5,2km²), 54.7% of that are on the

Lake Zurich Lake Zurich (, ; ) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or can be used to describe the lake as a whole, or just that part of the lake downstream of the Hurden peninsula and ...

The municipality is located on a delta of the Wägi river in the upper section of

. 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 (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 (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...

''). 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 constructi ...

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 ...

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

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, while 984 or 15.7% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...

. 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 (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

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

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

. 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, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...

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 from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

. 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. Lachen railway station is a stop on the

Lake Zürich left-bank railway line The Lake Zurich left bank railway line (), is a railway line in Switzerland. It serves the left (or west) bank of Lake Zurich, connecting Zurich to Ziegelbrücke and Näfels. The left-bank railway opened in 1875 and forms part of the Zurich–Ch ...

and served by the

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

services S2, which runs every half-hour between

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and

Ziegelbrücke Ziegelbrücke is a village situated on both sides of the Linth Channel in Switzerland. Ziegelbrücke is shared by the Municipalities of Switzerland, municipalities of Niederurnen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Glarus (canton), Glarus an ...

, 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.James Deaville'Raff, (Joseph) Joachim' in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001) Biography Raff was born in Lachen, Switzerland, Lachen in Switzerland. ...

(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. Maj ...

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

Maya Bamert Maya Bamert (born 7 December 1979 in Lachen, Switzerland, Lachen) is a Switzerland, Swiss bobsledder who has competed since 2003. She finished eighth in the two-woman event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Bamert also competed in the FIBT W ...

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

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

* Josip Drmić (born 1992 in Lachen) a Swiss professional footballer

References

External links

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