Oberegg District

Oberegg is first mentioned in 1470 as a village. Around the time that the church was built (finished in 1655) Oberegg had grown to encompass the region surrounding the village. Hirschberg was divided during the division of Appenzell in the wake of the Reformation. Some communities were left in the old faith, others turned themselves to the new faith. When the canton of Appenzell was divided in 1597 into a Catholic and a Protestant part of the canton, the Catholic majority of Hirschberg wanted to stay with Innerrhoden, while the Protestant minority wanted to go to Ausserrhoden. In the division of Appenzell (known as the '', literally Land division letter or treaty''), the land owned by the Protestants was separated from Hirschberg and given to the Protestant Ausserrhoden, where it became the municipality of Reute. Catholic Hirschberg would later become part of the Innerrhoden municipality of Oberegg. ==Geography==

Oberegg has an area, , of . Of this area, 51.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 42.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 5.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.1% is unproductive land. The district is the outermost portion of the half-canton toward the Rhine valley (). It consists of the village of Oberegg and the hamlets of Büriswilen, Kapf, Eschenmoos, Sankt Anton and numerous individual farm houses. ==Coat of arms==

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Impaled per chevron Sable a Mullet Or and Vert a Cross couped pattee Argent and of the last a Deer Gules trippant on a Mount of 3 Coupeaux Vert. The coat of arms is a divided vertically to show the coat of arms of Hirschenberg (right hand side) and Oberegg (left hand side). On the left hand side there is a silver cross on a green background at the bottom. At the top, the background is black with a golden star. On the right hand side, the bottom of the coat of arms shows three mounts in green. At the top there is a red deer strutting on a silver background. ==Demographics==

Oberegg has a population () of . , 8.3% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 3.5%. It has changed at a rate of 8.2% due to migration and at a rate of 0.5% due to births and deaths. Most of the population () speaks German (1,738 or 96.8%), with Albanian being second most common (13 or 0.7%) and Italian being third (8 or 0.4%). There are 3 people who speak French and 2 people who speak Romansh. the average number of residents per living room was 0.55 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.59 per room. About 67.6% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage or a rent-to-own agreement). , there were 680 private households in the district, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. there were 852 apartments in the district. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 234. There were 11 single room apartments and 394 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 660 apartments (77.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 130 apartments (15.3%) were seasonally occupied and 62 apartments (7.3%) were empty. Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:2900 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:120 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:2141 text:"2,141" bar:1860 from:start till:2188 text:"2,188" bar:1870 from:start till:2282 text:"2,282" bar:1880 from:start till:2469 text:"2,469" bar:1888 from:start till:2499 text:"2,499" bar:1900 from:start till:2652 text:"2,652" bar:1910 from:start till:2862 text:"2,862" bar:1920 from:start till:2740 text:"2,740" bar:1930 from:start till:2447 text:"2,447" bar:1941 from:start till:2233 text:"2,233" bar:1950 from:start till:2197 text:"2,197" bar:1960 from:start till:1955 text:"1,955" bar:1970 from:start till:1867 text:"1,867" bar:1980 from:start till:1731 text:"1,731" bar:1990 from:start till:1782 text:"1,782" bar:2000 from:start till:1796 text:"1,796" ==Politics==

In the 2007 federal election the CVP received 90.13% of the vote. In the federal election, a total of 334 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 24.9%. ==Economy==

, Oberegg had an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were 127 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 61 businesses involved in this sector. 309 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 37 businesses in this sector. 200 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 58 businesses in this sector. , there were 236 workers who commuted into the district and 516 workers who commuted away. The district is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.2 workers leaving the district for every one entering. About 16.9% of the workforce coming into Oberegg are coming from outside Switzerland, while 1.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 9% used public transportation to get to work, and 54.8% used a private car. ==Religion==

From the , 1,269 or 70.7% were Roman Catholic, while 348 or 19.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 4 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.22% of the population), there was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 32 individuals (or about 1.78% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 34 (or about 1.89% of the population) who were Islamic. 86 (or about 4.79% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 22 individuals (or about 1.22% of the population) did not answer the question. ==Education==

In Oberegg about 637 or (35.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 158 or (8.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''''). Of the 158 who completed tertiary schooling, 66.5% were Swiss men, 19.0% were Swiss women, 10.1% were non-Swiss men and 4.4% were non-Swiss women. , there were 41 students in Oberegg who came from another district, while 35 residents attended schools outside the district. ==References==