Eggiwil is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

The Kyburg Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family of Eggiwil first appears around the same time.

In 1528 the city of Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and converted the surrounding area, including Eggiwil.

In the years following the Reformation in Bern, Anabaptists began to settle in Eggiwil.

In 1630-32 Bern built a Swiss Reformed Church in the village to try to restrain the Anabaptists.

Deforestation from grazing and timber production caused a number of floods which damaged farm land and houses around the village and in the 19th century encouraged the villagers to reforest the surrounding mountains.

Until the 1830 construction of a road to Schüpbach, the only way to reach the village was a narrow mountain path.

Today, agriculture is still important, though a few machine shops, mills and sawmills provide additional jobs.

Eggiwil lacks a convenient road or rail link to any major city and so very few residents commute to jobs elsewhere.

Because the municipality is so spread out, there are eight primary school buildings scattered throughout its area.

Most of the smaller hamlets (Äschau, Neuenschwand, Horben and Dieboldswil) are located on a terrace, known as Eggen, above the rivers.

[6] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Fir Tree eradicated Vert between in chief two Mullets Or.

[9] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (2,451 or 98.0%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (14 or 0.6%) and English is the third (4 or 0.2%).

[14] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][15][16] The Farm House Inner-Zimmertsei and the Schweinsberg, which is an earthwork from an undetermined era, are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance.

The number of jobs in the primary sector was 414, of which 410 were in agriculture and 4 were in forestry or lumber production.

In the tertiary sector; 37 or 23.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 32 or 20.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 37 or 23.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 2.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 3.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 23 or 14.7% were in education and 6 or 3.8% were in health care.

[24] From the 2000 census[update], 2,208 or 88.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 77 or 3.1% were Roman Catholic.

[10] During and after the Reformation time the persecuted Anabaptist met for several hundred years in hideouts and farm houses in the Eggiwil area.

This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude.

Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.