Freienbach 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' ...

Höfe District Höfe District is a district of the canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The coat of arms of the Höfe is ''per pale: gules, two lions rampant contourny or; and or, three lions passant gules''. It has a population of (as of ). The district contains th ...

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

Freienbach is first mentioned in 972 as ''Friginbach''.

Geography

Freienbach has an area, , of . Of this area, 40.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 23.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 31% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (4.5%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The municipality is located on

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 ...

and stretches from the lake (elevation ) to the Etzel mountain (elevation ). It consists of the villages of Freienbach, Pfäffikon (not to be confused with Pfäffikon in the

canton of Zurich The canton of Zurich is an administrative unit (Swiss canton, canton) of Switzerland, situated in the northeastern part of the country. With a population of (as of ), it is the most populous canton of Switzerland. Zurich is the ''de facto'' Capi ...

), Wilen, Bäch, Hurden (located on the

Seedamm The Rapperswil Seedamm is the artificial causeway at the narrowest area of Lake Zurich between Hurden, Hurden (SZ) and Rapperswil (SG). The structure contains two bridge segments and is approximately long. The Seedamm carries a road () and ...

) and the two islands of Lützelau and Ufenau (Ufnau).

Demographics

Freienbach has a population (as of ) of . , 23.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 23.8%. Most of the population () speaks German (87.9%), with Italian being second most common (2.3%) and Serbo-Croatian being third (2.0%).Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 02-Sep-2009 the gender distribution of the population was 50.6% male and 49.4% female. The age distribution, , in Freienbach is; 2,963 people or 22.7% of the population is between 0 and 19. 4,174 people or 32.0% are 20 to 39, and 4,432 people or 33.9% are 40 to 64. The senior population distribution is 977 people or 7.5% are 65 to 74. There are 407 people or 3.1% who are 70 to 79 and 102 people or 0.78% of the population who are over 80.Canton Schwyz Statistics
accessed 27 August 2009 there are 5,558 households, of which 1,653 households (or about 29.7%) contain only a single individual. 274 or about 4.9% are large households, with at least five members. In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP which received 44.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (19%), the SPS (16.3%) and the CVP (15%). In Freienbach about 74.7% of the population (between age 25-64) 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 ...

''). Freienbach has an unemployment rate of 1.7%. , there were 184 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 53 businesses involved in this sector. 2,718 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 216 businesses in this sector. 7,174 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 1,029 businesses in this sector. Kirche Freienbach

From the , 7,641 or 58.5% 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 2,915 or 22.3% 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 6 individuals (or about 0.05% of the population) who belong to the Christian Catholic faith, there are 202 individuals (or about 1.55% of the population) who belong to the Orthodox Church, and there are 18 individuals (or about 0.14% of the population) who belong to another Christian church. There are 12 individuals (or about 0.09% of the population) 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 633 (or about 4.85% of the population) who are

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic. There are 92 individuals (or about 0.70% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), 1,151 (or about 8.82% of the population) belong to no church, 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 385 individuals (or about 2.95% of the population) did not answer the question. The historical population is given in the following table:

Transport

The municipality of Freienbach is served by six railway stations. Of these, is the most important, being served by both long distance and

Zurich 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, ...

trains. The remaining stations each serve a subset of the S-Bahn trains: * is served by S8 * is served by S8 * is served by S40 * is served by S5 and S40 * is served by S2, S5, S8 and S40 * is served by S40

Sport

FC Freienbach is the municipality's football club.

Heritage sites of national significance

The prehistoric lakeside settlement at Hurden/Seedamm and Ufnau, the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of St. Peter and Paul with Martin's Chapel, the Seedamm Cultural Center of Pfäffikon and Pfäffikon Castle are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The prehistoric settlements at Hurden Rosshorn and Hurden Seefeld are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

.UNESCO World Heritage Site - Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
/ref>

References

External links

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