Habkern 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 Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district

Interlaken-Oberhasli (administrative district)

Interlaken-Oberhasli District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Oberland administrative region. It contains 29 municipalities with an area of and a population of 48,763....

 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....

.

Origin of the name

The name Habkern comes from the Old High German

Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...

 word habuh ("hawk

Hawk

The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...

") and the ending -arra, indicating that something is in large numbers. Habkern is thus "the place where there are many hawks."

Geography

Habkern has an area, , of 51.06 km² (19.7 sq mi). Of this area, 20.11 km² (7.8 sq mi) or 39.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 25.5 km² (9.8 sq mi) or 49.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.67 km² (0.258688446256998 sq mi) or 1.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.41 km² (0.158301885022939 sq mi) or 0.8% is either rivers or lakes and 4.39 km² (1.7 sq mi) or 8.6% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.6%. 43.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 6.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 8.8% is pastures and 30.5% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 5.1% is unproductive vegetation and 3.5% is too rocky for vegetation.

The municipality is made up a number of scattered settlements without a central village. The major settlements are all small farming settlements, with some of the largest being; Bohlseiten, Bort, Schwendi and Mittelbäuert. Habkern lies in the Bernese Oberland

Bernese Oberland

The Bernese Oberland is the higher part of the canton of Bern, Switzerland, in the southern end of the canton: The area around Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and the valleys of the Bernese Alps .The flag of the Bernese Oberland consists of a black eagle in a gold field The Bernese Oberland (Bernese...

 at the edge of the Emmental

Emmental

For the cheese made in the region, see Emmental .The Emmental is a region in west central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the Emme and Ilfis rivers. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming...

, which flows from the Hohngant massif. Underground is the Siebenhengste-Hohgant-Höhle

Siebenhengste-Hohgant-Höhle

Siebenhengste-Hohgant-Höhle is a cave located in Switzerland, in the canton of Bern at the north of the Lake of Thun, between the villages of Eriz and Habkern...

, a karst

KARST

Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...

 cave

Cave

A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...

 system.

Demographics

Habkern has a population (as of ) of . , 3.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -6.7%. Most of the population speaks German (98.7%), with French being second most common ( 0.2%) and English being third ( 0.2%).

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 68.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the local small left-wing parties (8.8%), the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

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

 (6.9%) 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....

 (6.1%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.5% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 56.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.9%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Habkern about 60.3% 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...

).

Habkern has an unemployment rate of 0.51%. , there were 179 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 61 businesses involved in this sector. 25 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 6 businesses in this sector. 61 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 14 businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	365
1850	724
1880	839
1900	781
1950	671
2000	624