Epsach 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 Seeland administrative district

Seeland (administrative district)

Seeland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Seeland administrative region. It contains 46 municipalities with an area of and a population of 67,209....

 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

Epsach has an area, , of 3.39 km² (1.3 sq mi). Of this area, 2.65 km² (1 sq mi) or 78.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.48 km² (0.185329036124417 sq mi) or 14.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.22 km² (0.0849424748903577 sq mi) or 6.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.05 km² (12.4 acre) or 1.5% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.3% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.7%. 13.6% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 64.3% is used for growing crops and 6.2% is pastures, while 7.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

The municipality includes the villages of Epsach, Klus and Baar. It is located on the low hills between Lake Biel

Lake Biel

Lake Biel or Lake Bienne is a lake in the west of Switzerland. Together with Lake Morat and Lake Neuchâtel, it is one of the three large lakes in the Jura region of Switzerland. It lies approximately at , at the language boundary between German & French speaking areas.The lake is 15 km long and up...

 and the 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...

.

Demographics

Epsach has a population (as of ) of . , 2.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 3.6%. Most of the population speaks German (96.6%), with French being second most common ( 2.2%) and Albanian being third ( 0.6%).

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 55.9% 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:...

 (11.1%) and the local small left-wing parties (5.8%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 55.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.8%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Epsach about 73.7% of the population (aged 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...

).

Epsach has an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were 66 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 5 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 3 businesses in this sector. 11 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 5 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	204
1850	324
1888	380
1900	366
1941	302
1950	334

External links