Schmerikon

Geschichte

Schmerikon is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of See-Gaster in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. In the local Swiss German dialect it is called Schmerike.GeographySchmerikon is located at the head of Lake Zurich, on the section of the lake known as the Obersee and where the Linth river enters the lake. Part of the municipality is a natural reserve, particularly along the lake shore.Schmerikon has an area, of 4km2. Of this area, 38.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 23% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 27% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (11.1%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes).Coat of armsThe blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules two Crescents addorsed Or and in chief a Cross pattee Argent.DemographicsSchmerikon has a population of., about 25.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, 22 are from Germany, 239 are from Italy, 363 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 17 are from Austria, 140 are from Turkey, and 97 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 8.2%. Most of the population speaks German (83.4%), with Italian being second most common ( 4.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 3.2%). Of the Swiss national languages, 2,654 speak German, 11 people speak French, 150 people speak Italian, and 1 person speaks Romansh.