Bellmund is a municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the Biel/Bienne administrative district

Biel/Bienne (administrative district)

Biel/Bienne District is an administrative district in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. It is located along both shores of the northeastern half of Lake Biel and is part of the Seeland administrative region, and its capital is Biel/Bienne. It contains 19 municipalities with an area of and a...

in the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Bern in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. The Knebelburg, as the site of a High Medieval fortification and a prehistorical hill dwelling, is a heritage site of national significance

Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance

The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...

.

History

Bellmund is first mentioned in 1107 as Bellus mons. In 1228 it was mentioned as Belmunt.

Geography

Bellmund has an area, , of 3.8 km² (1.5 sq mi). Of this area, 1.98 km² (0.764482274013219 sq mi) or 52.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while1.26 km² (0.486488719826594 sq mi) or 33.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.56 km² (0.21621720881182 sq mi) or 14.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 9.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. 32.4% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 38.9% is used for growing crops and 10.5% is pastures, while 2.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Bellmund is located in the Berner Seeland

Seeland (Switzerland)

Seeland is a region in Switzerland, at the foot of the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains containing the 3 lakes of Morat , Neuchâtel and Bienne . In previous aeras, it was the floodplain of the Aare and is thus swampy. After the huge hydrological works Jura water correction, the area...

 south of Biel. It is slightly elevated above the neighboring plains and lies between Oberholz hill and Jensberg hill. The municipality also includes a section of the hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of St. Niklaus.

Demographics

Bellmund has a population (as of ) of . , 6.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 18%. Most of the population speaks German (89.9%), with French being second most common ( 6.2%) and Italian being third ( 1.6%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP

Swiss People's Party

The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 32.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP

Free Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Free Democratic Party was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009....

 (27%), the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (16.9%) and the Green Party

Green Party of Switzerland

The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (8.4%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 12.9%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Bellmund about 84.9% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule

Fachhochschule

A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

Bellmund has an unemployment rate of 0.58%. , there were 31 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 12 businesses involved in this sector. 185 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 11 businesses in this sector. 85 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 16 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	195
1850	334
1900	329
1950	416
2000	1,221