Burgistein 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 administrative district of Thun

Thun (administrative district)

Thun District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Oberland administrative region. It contains 35 municipalities with an area of and a population of 103,233....

 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....

.

Geography

Burgistein has an area, , of 7.53 km² (2.9 sq mi). Of this area, 5.73 km² (2.2 sq mi) or 76.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.98 km² (0.378380115420684 sq mi) or 13.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.73 km² (0.281854575772551 sq mi) or 9.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.06 km² (14.8 acre) or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.5%. 10.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 31.7% is used for growing crops and 41.0% is pastures, while 3.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Burgistein is a scattered settlement without a central village. The closest thing it has to a center is the old village that grew up around the former castle, Burgistein-Dorf on Längenberg-Gurnigel. The municipality includes the hamlets

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 Weier, Niederschönegg, Äbnit and Plötsch, as well as the new developments of Burgistein-Station (which include Grossmatt, Burgiwil, Pfandersmatt), all in the Gürbetal

Gürbetal

Gürbetal in Switzerland lies between the cities of Bern and Thun, west of the Aare river. It contains the municipality of Seftigen and those that surround it. The valley is named after the Gürbe river which flows through it. The largest town in the Gürbe valley is Belp...

.

Demographics

Burgistein has a population (as of ) of . , 3.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 3.8%. Most of the population speaks German (97.9%), with English being second most common ( 0.5%) and French being third ( 0.3%).

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 43.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

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

 (17.9%), 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:...

 (12.1%) and 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....

 (9.5%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.8%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Burgistein about 72.3% 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...

).

Burgistein has an unemployment rate of 0.83%. , there were 111 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 40 businesses involved in this sector. 85 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 18 businesses in this sector. 117 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 24 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	488
1850	1,089
1880	1,117
1900	972
1950	952
1980	884
2000	1,029

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