Kilchberg is first mentioned in 1248 as Hilchberch. In 1250 it was mentioned as Kilchperch. It grew out of the mediaeval village of Bendlikon where Kilchberg was just a section of the village. Its coat of arms is Azure a Quatrefoil Argent seeded Or.
Geography
Kilchberg has an area of. Of this area, 26.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 71.2% is settled and the remainder is non-productive. housing and buildings made up 58.1% of the total area, while transportation infrastructure made up the rest. 74.9% of the total municipal area was undergoing some type of construction.
Demographics
Kilchberg has a population of. , 21.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. the gender distribution of the population was 48.1% male and 51.9% female. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 1.8% per annum. Most of the population speaks German , with English being second most common and Italian being third. In the 2007 national election the most popular party was the SVP which received 30.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP, the SPS and the CSP. The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers make up 17.2% of the population, while adults make up 63% and seniors make up 19.8%. About 84.7% of the population have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education. There are 3,512 households in Kilchberg. there were 1928 Catholics and 2786 Protestants in Kilchberg. In the 2000 census, religion was broken down into several smaller categories. From the, 44.3% were some type of Protestant, with 42.7% belonging to the Swiss Reformed Church and 1.6% belonging to other Protestant churches. 28.1% of the population were Catholic. Of the rest of the population, 0% were Muslim, 6.3% belonged to another religion, 3.3% did not give a religion, and 17.3% were atheist or agnostic. The historical population is given in the following table:
year
population
1467
43 households
1634
286
1671
515
1722
617
1836
958
1850
1,141
1900
1,951
1950
5,474
1970
7,546
1990
7,081
2000
7,197
Industry
Kilchberg is home to the corporate headquarters of the confectionerLindt & Sprüngli. Kilchberg has an unemployment rate of 1.64%. , there were 118 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 11 businesses involved in this sector. 1479 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 48 businesses in this sector. 1983 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 306 businesses in this sector. 65% of the working population were employed full-time, and 35% were employed part-time. Kilchberg is also the location of the private hospital Krankenhaus Sanitas.
German author Thomas Mann made his home in Kilchberg when he returned to Europe after World War II, and he is buried there.
Swiss author Conrad Ferdinand Meyer was born in Zürich and died in Kilchberg. In his honour, there is a C.F. Meyer museum in Kilchberg.
Swiss-German chocolatier, David Sprüngli-Schwartz, and his son were born in Zürich but owned factories and died in Kilchberg. Their chocolate company Lindt & Sprüngli, most commonly known as Lindt, is world-famous.