Goldach

Goldach is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Goldach is first mentioned in 789 as Goldaha, though this comes from a later copy of the original document. In 847 it was mentioned as Coldaun. Goldach has an area, , of . Of this area, 33.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 12.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 51.9% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (2.3%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). The municipality is located in the Rorschach Wahlkreis. It is located on the road between Rorschach and St. Gallen and stretches from Lake Constance to the Rorschacherberg. It consists of the village sections of Ober-Goldach, Unter-Goldach and Riet. The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Azure two Bars wavy Or. Goldach has a population (as of ) of . , about 20.6% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (), 128 are from Germany, 625 are from Italy, 481 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 129 are from Austria, 69 are from Turkey, and 218 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 8.5%. Most of the population () speaks German (89.5%), with Italian being second most common ( 4.0%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 2.2%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 7,552 speak German, 19 people speak French, 337 people speak Italian, and 12 people speak Romansh. The age distribution, , in Goldach is; 935 children or 11.1% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,029 teenagers or 12.2% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 951 people or 11.3% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,395 people or 16.5% are between 30 and 39, 1,178 people or 14.0% are between 40 and 49, and 1,098 people or 13.0% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 862 people or 10.2% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 657 people or 7.8% are between 70 and 79, there are 289 people or 3.4% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 46 people or 0.