Breitenbach, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Breitenbach is a municipality
in the district of Thierstein
in the canton
of Solothurn in Switzerland
.
There are two train stations near Breitenbach, the main being in Laufen and the other in Zwingen. As with most of Switzerland, there are Postauto buses which take people to surrounding cities and to and from the train station. Schweizerdeutsch (Swiss-German) in Breitenbach closely resembles that of Baseldeutsch (Basel-German).
Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 11.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 32.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 26.6% is used for growing crops and 17.4% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is the capital of the Thierstein district and the Dorneck-Thierstein district. It is located on the Passwang Pass
road at the entrance to the Gilgenbergerland area. It consists of the village of Breitenbach and the former parish
center of Rohr.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Per pale Or a Reed Vert with two leaves and Gules a Fess wavy Argent.
Most of the population speaks German
(2,694 or 82.6%), with Italian
being second most common (138 or 4.2%) and Portuguese
being third (90 or 2.8%). There are 24 people who speak French
and 6 people who speak Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. The population was made up of 1,268 Swiss men (36.3% of the population) and 462 (13.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,369 Swiss women (39.2%) and 391 (11.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 932 or about 28.6% were born in Breitenbach and lived there in 2000. There were 580 or 17.8% who were born in the same canton, while 912 or 28.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 739 or 22.7% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 16 live births to Swiss citizens and 13 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 27 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 11 while the foreign population increased by 11. There was 1 Swiss man and 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 2 non-Swiss men and 5 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 15 and the non-Swiss population increased by 2 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.5%.
The age distribution, , in Breitenbach is; 255 children or 7.8% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 554 teenagers or 17.0% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 179 people or 5.5% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 984 people or 30.2% are between 25 and 44, and 793 people or 24.3% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 350 people or 10.7% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 145 people or 4.4% who are over 80.
, there were 1,296 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,645 married individuals, 186 widows or widowers and 133 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.6 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.56 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 45.3% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 1,259 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 354 households that consist of only one person and 102 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,282 households that answered this question, 27.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 6 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 352 married couples without children, 466 married couples with children There were 62 single parents with a child or children. There were 19 households that were made up of unrelated people and 23 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 534 single family homes (or 72.6% of the total) out of a total of 736 inhabited buildings. There were 114 multi-family buildings (15.5%), along with 49 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (6.7%) and 39 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.3%). Of the single family homes 26 were built before 1919, while 94 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (121) were built between 1946 and 1960.
there were 1,332 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 370. There were 46 single room apartments and 469 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,224 apartments (91.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 60 apartments (4.5%) were seasonally occupied and 48 apartments (3.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.7 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.78%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the FDP
which received 32.08% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP
(27.75%), the CVP
(16.18%) and the SP
(14.39%). In the federal election, a total of 945 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 45.2%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 1,637. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 27, of which 24 were in agriculture and 3 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 860 of which 803 or (93.4%) were in manufacturing and 58 (6.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 750. In the tertiary sector; 183 or 24.4% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 28 or 3.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 25 or 3.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 0.5% were in the information industry, 18 or 2.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 20 or 2.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 48 or 6.4% were in education and 338 or 45.1% were in health care.
, there were 1,690 workers who commuted into the municipality and 979 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.7 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 8.3% of the workforce coming into Breitenbach are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 18.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.3% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 85 members of an Orthodox church
(or about 2.61% of the population), there were 11 individuals (or about 0.34% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
, and there were 38 individuals (or about 1.17% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 122 (or about 3.74% of the population) who were Islam
ic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist
, 16 individuals who were Hindu
and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 382 (or about 11.72% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 134 individuals (or about 4.11% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 334 who completed tertiary schooling, 68.6% were Swiss men, 18.3% were Swiss women, 8.1% were non-Swiss men and 5.1% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 283 students in the Breitenbach school system. The education system
in the Canton of Solothurn allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory Kindergarten
. During that school year, there were 56 children in kindergarten. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In the municipality there were 206 students in primary school and 21 students in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school
program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower secondary students from Breitenbach attend their school in a neighboring municipality.
, there were 213 students in Breitenbach who came from another municipality, while 131 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Breitenbach is home to the Bibliothek Breitenbach library. The library has 9,867 books or other media, and loaned out 38,249 items in the same year. It was open a total of 198 days with average of 13 hours per week during that year.
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 district of Thierstein
Thierstein (district)
Thierstein District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland, situated to the north of the canton. Together with the Dorneck District, it forms the Amtei of Dorneck-Thierstein...
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 Solothurn 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....
.
There are two train stations near Breitenbach, the main being in Laufen and the other in Zwingen. As with most of Switzerland, there are Postauto buses which take people to surrounding cities and to and from the train station. Schweizerdeutsch (Swiss-German) in Breitenbach closely resembles that of Baseldeutsch (Basel-German).
Geography
Breitenbach has an area, , of 6.8 square kilometres (2.6 sq mi). Of this area, 3.14 km² (1.2 sq mi) or 46.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.34 km² (0.903479051106532 sq mi) or 34.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.32 km² (0.509654849342146 sq mi) or 19.4% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.1% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.4% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 11.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 32.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 26.6% is used for growing crops and 17.4% is pastures, while 2.2% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.
The municipality is the capital of the Thierstein district and the Dorneck-Thierstein district. It is located on the Passwang Pass
Passwang Pass
Passwang Pass is a high mountain pass in the Jura Mountains in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.It connects Mümliswil and Reigoldswil. At the summit, the pass road goes through a 200-metre tunnel.-See also:...
road at the entrance to the Gilgenbergerland area. It consists of the village of Breitenbach and the former parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
center of Rohr.
Coat of arms
The blazonBlazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...
of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is Per pale Or a Reed Vert with two leaves and Gules a Fess wavy Argent.
Demographics
Breitenbach has a population of . , 23.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 11.1%. It has changed at a rate of 9.7% due to migration and at a rate of 2% due to births and deaths.Most of the population speaks German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(2,694 or 82.6%), with Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
being second most common (138 or 4.2%) and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
being third (90 or 2.8%). There are 24 people who speak French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and 6 people who speak Romansh.
, the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. The population was made up of 1,268 Swiss men (36.3% of the population) and 462 (13.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,369 Swiss women (39.2%) and 391 (11.2%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 932 or about 28.6% were born in Breitenbach and lived there in 2000. There were 580 or 17.8% who were born in the same canton, while 912 or 28.0% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 739 or 22.7% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 16 live births to Swiss citizens and 13 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 27 deaths of Swiss citizens and 2 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 11 while the foreign population increased by 11. There was 1 Swiss man and 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 2 non-Swiss men and 5 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 15 and the non-Swiss population increased by 2 people. This represents a population growth rate of 0.5%.
The age distribution, , in Breitenbach is; 255 children or 7.8% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 554 teenagers or 17.0% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 179 people or 5.5% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 984 people or 30.2% are between 25 and 44, and 793 people or 24.3% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 350 people or 10.7% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 145 people or 4.4% who are over 80.
, there were 1,296 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,645 married individuals, 186 widows or widowers and 133 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.6 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.56 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 45.3% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
or a rent-to-own agreement).
, there were 1,259 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 354 households that consist of only one person and 102 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,282 households that answered this question, 27.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 6 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 352 married couples without children, 466 married couples with children There were 62 single parents with a child or children. There were 19 households that were made up of unrelated people and 23 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 534 single family homes (or 72.6% of the total) out of a total of 736 inhabited buildings. There were 114 multi-family buildings (15.5%), along with 49 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (6.7%) and 39 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.3%). Of the single family homes 26 were built before 1919, while 94 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (121) were built between 1946 and 1960.
there were 1,332 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 370. There were 46 single room apartments and 469 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,224 apartments (91.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 60 apartments (4.5%) were seasonally occupied and 48 apartments (3.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 6.7 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.78%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Politics
In the 2007 federal electionSwiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
the most popular party was the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....
which received 32.08% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...
(27.75%), the CVP
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...
(16.18%) and the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....
(14.39%). In the federal election, a total of 945 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...
was 45.2%.
Economy
, Breitenbach had an unemployment rate of 3.8%. , there were 35 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 894 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 27 businesses in this sector. 1,007 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 126 businesses in this sector. There were 1,654 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 41.2% of the workforce.the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...
jobs was 1,637. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 27, of which 24 were in agriculture and 3 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 860 of which 803 or (93.4%) were in manufacturing and 58 (6.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 750. In the tertiary sector; 183 or 24.4% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 28 or 3.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 25 or 3.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 0.5% were in the information industry, 18 or 2.4% were the insurance or financial industry, 20 or 2.7% were technical professionals or scientists, 48 or 6.4% were in education and 338 or 45.1% were in health care.
, there were 1,690 workers who commuted into the municipality and 979 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.7 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 8.3% of the workforce coming into Breitenbach are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 18.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 51.3% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 2,068 or 63.4% were Roman Catholic, while 401 or 12.3% belonged to the Swiss Reformed ChurchSwiss Reformed Church
The Reformed branch of Protestantism in Switzerland was started in Zürich by Huldrych Zwingli and spread within a few years to Basel , Bern , St...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 85 members of an Orthodox church
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
(or about 2.61% of the population), there were 11 individuals (or about 0.34% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...
, and there were 38 individuals (or about 1.17% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 122 (or about 3.74% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, 16 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 382 (or about 11.72% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....
or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, and 134 individuals (or about 4.11% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Breitenbach about 1,110 or (34.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 334 or (10.2%) have completed additional higher education (either University or a FachhochschuleFachhochschule
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...
). Of the 334 who completed tertiary schooling, 68.6% were Swiss men, 18.3% were Swiss women, 8.1% were non-Swiss men and 5.1% were non-Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 283 students in the Breitenbach school system. The education system
Education in Switzerland
The education system in Switzerland is very diverse, because the constitution of Switzerland delegates the authority for the school system mainly to the cantons...
in the Canton of Solothurn allows young children to attend two years of non-obligatory Kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
. During that school year, there were 56 children in kindergarten. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of primary school, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In the municipality there were 206 students in primary school and 21 students in the special, smaller classes. The secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower secondary students from Breitenbach attend their school in a neighboring municipality.
, there were 213 students in Breitenbach who came from another municipality, while 131 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
Breitenbach is home to the Bibliothek Breitenbach library. The library has 9,867 books or other media, and loaned out 38,249 items in the same year. It was open a total of 198 days with average of 13 hours per week during that year.