Freienbach
Freienbach is a municipality in Höfe District in the canton of Schwyz in 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 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), Wilen, Bäch, Hurden (located on the Seedamm) 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%). 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"). 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, with 1,029 businesses in this sector. From the , 7,641 or 58.5% are Roman Catholic, while 2,915 or 22.3 % belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. 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, and 633 (or about 4.85% of the population) who are Islamic. 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 or atheist, 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 trains. The remaining stations each serve a subset of the S-Bahn trains: 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 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 World Heritage Site.