Concept
Kirchberg is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Toggenburg in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Kirchberg is first mentioned in 1222 as Kilchberc. Kirchberg has an area, , of . Of this area, 59.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 30.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.6%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). The municipality is located in the Toggenburg Wahlkreis. It is the most north-western municipality in the Wahlkreis and in bordered in the west by canton Thurgau and in the east by the Thur river. It consists of the village of Kirchberg on a high plateau in the center of the municipality, the village of Gähwil south of Kirchberg and the linear village of Bazenheid on a terrace above the Thur. Additionally, scattered around the municipality, there are the hamlets of Müselbach, Dietschwil, Ötwil, Nuetenwil, Rupperswil, Bräägg, Schalkhusen, Wolfikon, Lütenriet, Buomberg, Bäbikon and Husen. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per pall Or a Lion rampant Gules crowned Argent and Or a Semi Eagle displayed issuant Azure langued Gules and crowned Argent. Kirchberg has a population (as of ) of . , about 22.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (), 102 are from Germany, 187 are from Italy, 1,002 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 34 are from Austria, 284 are from Turkey, and 211 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 2.3%. Most of the population () speaks German (86.4%), with Albanian being second most common ( 4.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 2.4%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 6,829 speak German, 15 people speak French, 134 people speak Italian, and 7 people speak Romansh. The age distribution, , in Kirchberg is; 1,148 children or 14.5% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,235 teenagers or 15.6% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 901 people or 11.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old.
