Därstetten 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 Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district

Frutigen-Niedersimmental (administrative district)

Frutigen-Niedersimmental District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Oberland administrative region. It contains 13 municipalities with an area of and a population of 38,871....

 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

Därstetten has an area, , of 32.79 km² (12.7 sq mi). Of this area, 15.16 km² (5.9 sq mi) or 46.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 13.07 km² (5 sq mi) or 39.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.88 km² (0.339769899561431 sq mi) or 2.7% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.36 km² (0.138996777093313 sq mi) or 1.1% is either rivers or lakes and 3.32 km² (1.3 sq mi) or 10.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.2%. 32.8% of the total land area is heavily forested and 5.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 0.2% is used for growing crops and 15.9% is pastures and 29.9% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 6.9% is unproductive vegatation and 3.2% is too rocky for vegatation.

The municipality is located on the valley floor and hills around the Stockhorn

Stockhorn

The Stockhorn is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, above the town of Erlenbach in Simmetal.The Stockhorn is 2190 m high and is accessible via cable car and/or walking during 3 hours 30 minutes from the Oberstockensee. It has a restaurant at the top and is a good starting point for many hikes...

 and Turnen

Turnen

The Turnen is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland.-External links:*...

 mountains. The landscape includes a valley floor, forests and alps. It includes the farming cooperatives (Bäuerten) of Weissenburg, Reichenbach and Wiler.

Demographics

Därstetten has a population (as of ) of . , 2.6% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -0.1%. Most of the population speaks German (96.9%), with French being second most common ( 0.9%) and Albanian being third ( 0.7%).

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 69.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the local small left-wing parties (10.1%), 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....

 (6.2%) and the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

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

 (4.7%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 31.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 52.9% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.8%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Därstetten about 62.3% 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...

).

Därstetten has an unemployment rate of 0.98%. , there were 170 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 57 businesses involved in this sector. 77 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 19 businesses in this sector. 133 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 25 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	535
1850	104
1900	897
1950	885
1980	759
2000	879

External links