St. Margrethen (Saint Margrethen/Sankt Margrethen) is a municipality in the Wahlkreis (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Geography St. Margrethen has an area, , of . Of this area, 28.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 31.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 34.8% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (5.4%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). It is close to Austria and Germany and acts as a border town with Austria. Currently only a normal road links St. Margrethen with Austria. As a result, the town is at times clogged up with traffic before the customs posts. A motorway link has long been projected, to link the pathways to Zurich and Munich. It is also where the A1 motorway becomes the A13 motorway. Coat of arms The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Argent a Grape Azure slipped palewise and leaved Vert. Demographics St. Margrethen has a population (as of ) of . , about 43.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Of the foreign population, (), 83 are from Germany, 280 are from Italy, 1,028 are from ex-Yugoslavia, 235 are from Austria, 170 are from Turkey, and 197 are from another country. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 0.5%. Most of the population () speaks German (81.2%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 5.7%) and Albanian being third ( 4.0%). Of the Swiss national languages (), 4,289 speak German, 12 people speak French, 175 people speak Italian, and 12 people speak Romansh. The age distribution, , in St. Margrethen is; 612 children or 11.6% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 724 teenagers or 13.7% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 661 people or 12.5% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 822 people or 15.6% are between 30 and 39, 737 people or 13.9% are between 40 and 49, and 660 people or 12.5% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 486 people or 9.2% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 357 people or 6.8% are between 70 and 79, there are 190 people or 3.6% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 36 people or 0.7% who are between 90 and 99. there were 754 persons