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

[3] The oldest trace of settlements in the area are three high medieval castles in the hills above the modern town.

The knight Adalbert von Rüderswil was mentioned in 1146 though little is known about the local noble family.

By the Late Middle Ages the Teutonic Knights were a major landholder in the Rüderswil Herrschaft.

In 1528, Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and Rüderswil converted along with the rest of the canton.

[3] Rüderswil and the surrounding villages remained completely rural and agrarian until the 18th century when the canvas weaving cottage industry developed.

A cheese factory opened in Rüderswil in 1853, followed by a spinning mill in Schachen in 1869.

[5] The municipality is located on a terrace above the left bank of the Emme River.

On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Emmental.

[6] The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Per fess Argent and Gules overall a Lion rampant counterchanged.

[9] Most of the population (as of 2000[update]) speaks German (2,216 or 98.1%) as their first language, Albanian is the second most common (22 or 1.0%) and French is the third (3 or 0.1%).

[14] The historical population is given in the following chart:[3][15][16] As of  2011[update], Rüderswil had an unemployment rate of 1.45%.

In the tertiary sector; 39 or 20.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 31 or 16.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 13 or 6.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 14 or 7.3% were in the information industry, 3 or 1.6% were the insurance or financial industry, 27 or 14.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 18 or 9.3% were in education and 27 or 14.0% were in health care.

[24] From the 2000 census[update], 1,925 or 85.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church, while 66 or 2.9% were Roman Catholic.

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.

[25] During the 2012-13 school year, there were a total of 230 students attending classes in Rüderswil.

The municipality's primary school had 141 students in German language classes.