Kienberg, Switzerland
Encyclopedia
Kienberg is a municipality
in the district of Gösgen
in the canton
of Solothurn in Switzerland
.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.5%. Out of the forested land, 41.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.2% is used for growing crops and 31.4% is pastures, while 4.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.
The municipality is located in the Gösgen district, on the border between the Jura Plateau
and the Fricktal
. It lies on the road over the Salhöhe pass.
of the municipal coat of arms
is Per bend Sable and Or in the first a Bend sinister Argent.
Most of the population speaks German
(508 or 97.3%), with French
being second most common (4 or 0.8%) and Italian
being third (2 or 0.4%).
, the gender distribution of the population was 52.3% male and 47.7% female. The population was made up of 240 Swiss men (48.1% of the population) and 21 (4.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 225 Swiss women (45.1%) and 13 (2.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 222 or about 42.5% were born in Kienberg and lived there in 2000. There were 20 or 3.8% who were born in the same canton, while 229 or 43.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 34 or 6.5% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 3 live births to Swiss citizens and were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 2 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 3 non-Swiss men and 3 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 a decrease of 18 and the non-Swiss population increased by 6 people. This represents a population growth rate of -2.3%.
The age distribution, , in Kienberg is; 62 children or 11.9% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 91 teenagers or 17.4% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 11 people or 2.1% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 176 people or 33.7% are between 25 and 44, and 120 people or 23.0% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 44 people or 8.4% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 18 people or 3.4% who are over 80.
, there were 228 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 243 married individuals, 35 widows or widowers and 16 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.57 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 63.4% 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 198 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 55 households that consist of only one person and 24 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 202 households that answered this question, 27.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 54 married couples without children, 76 married couples with children There were 7 single parents with a child or children. There were 3 households that were made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 70 single family homes (or 47.6% of the total) out of a total of 147 inhabited buildings. There were 17 multi-family buildings (11.6%), along with 54 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (36.7%) and 6 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.1%). Of the single family homes 22 were built before 1919, while 16 were built between 1990 and 2000.
there were 205 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 62. There were 4 single room apartments and 99 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 186 apartments (90.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 9 apartments (4.4%) were seasonally occupied and 10 apartments (4.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.35%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
the most popular party was the SVP
which received 33.26% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP
(26.23%), the FDP
(21.98%) and the Green Party
(10.99%). In the federal election, a total of 200 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
was 51.7%.
the total number of full-time equivalent
jobs was 76. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 42, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 6 of which 3 or (50.0%) were in manufacturing and 3 (50.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 28. In the tertiary sector; 6 or 21.4% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 46.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 2 or 7.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 14.3% were in education.
, there were 17 workers who commuted into the municipality and 169 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 9.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.5% used a private car.
. Of the rest of the population, there were 2 individuals (or about 0.38% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
, and there were 21 individuals (or about 4.02% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 (or about 0.38% of the population) who were Islam
ic. 68 (or about 13.03% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
or atheist
, and 15 individuals (or about 2.87% of the population) did not answer the question.
). Of the 46 who completed tertiary schooling, 69.6% were Swiss men, 23.9% were Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 33 students in the Kienberg 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 13 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 20 students in primary school. 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 Kienberg attend their school in a neighboring municipality.
, there were 42 students from Kienberg who attended schools outside the 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 district of Gösgen
Gösgen (district)
Gösgen District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, situated to the northeast of the canton. Together with the Olten District, Gösgen forms the electoral district of Olten-Gösgen...
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....
.
History
Kienberg is first mentioned in 1173 as Vlricus et Hartmannus de Chienberh. In 1276 it was mentioned as dorff ze Kiemberg.Geography
Kienberg has an area, , of 8.53 square kilometres (3.3 sq mi). Of this area, 4.25 km² (1.6 sq mi) or 49.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 3.9 km² (1.5 sq mi) or 45.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.37 km² (0.142857798679238 sq mi) or 4.3% is settled (buildings or roads) and 0.03 km² (7.4 acre) or 0.4% is unproductive land.Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.5%. Out of the forested land, 41.0% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.2% is used for growing crops and 31.4% is pastures, while 4.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.
The municipality is located in the Gösgen district, on the border between the Jura Plateau
Jura mountains
The Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each...
and the Fricktal
Fricktal
The Fricktal region is the northwest finger extending from the Swiss canton of Aargau. It is situated in Northwestern Switzerland east of Basel, between the High Rhine forming the border with Germany in the north and the Jura Mountains in the south. The Fricktal contains the districts of...
. It lies on the road over the Salhöhe pass.
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 bend Sable and Or in the first a Bend sinister Argent.
Demographics
Kienberg has a population of . , 5.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -8.3%.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....
(508 or 97.3%), with 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...
being second most common (4 or 0.8%) and 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 third (2 or 0.4%).
, the gender distribution of the population was 52.3% male and 47.7% female. The population was made up of 240 Swiss men (48.1% of the population) and 21 (4.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 225 Swiss women (45.1%) and 13 (2.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 222 or about 42.5% were born in Kienberg and lived there in 2000. There were 20 or 3.8% who were born in the same canton, while 229 or 43.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 34 or 6.5% were born outside of Switzerland.
In there were 3 live births to Swiss citizens and were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 2 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 3 non-Swiss men and 3 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 a decrease of 18 and the non-Swiss population increased by 6 people. This represents a population growth rate of -2.3%.
The age distribution, , in Kienberg is; 62 children or 11.9% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 91 teenagers or 17.4% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 11 people or 2.1% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 176 people or 33.7% are between 25 and 44, and 120 people or 23.0% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 44 people or 8.4% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 18 people or 3.4% who are over 80.
, there were 228 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 243 married individuals, 35 widows or widowers and 16 individuals who are divorced.
the average number of residents per living room was 0.57 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 63.4% 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 198 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 55 households that consist of only one person and 24 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 202 households that answered this question, 27.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 54 married couples without children, 76 married couples with children There were 7 single parents with a child or children. There were 3 households that were made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.
there were 70 single family homes (or 47.6% of the total) out of a total of 147 inhabited buildings. There were 17 multi-family buildings (11.6%), along with 54 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (36.7%) and 6 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.1%). Of the single family homes 22 were built before 1919, while 16 were built between 1990 and 2000.
there were 205 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 62. There were 4 single room apartments and 99 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 186 apartments (90.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 9 apartments (4.4%) were seasonally occupied and 10 apartments (4.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.35%.
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 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 33.26% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...
(26.23%), 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....
(21.98%) and 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:...
(10.99%). In the federal election, a total of 200 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 51.7%.
Economy
, Kienberg had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. , there were 62 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 7 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 42 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 16 businesses in this sector. There were 260 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 37.7% 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 76. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 42, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 6 of which 3 or (50.0%) were in manufacturing and 3 (50.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 28. In the tertiary sector; 6 or 21.4% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 46.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 2 or 7.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 4 or 14.3% were in education.
, there were 17 workers who commuted into the municipality and 169 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 9.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 8.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 61.5% used a private car.
Religion
From the , 247 or 47.3% were Roman Catholic, while 167 or 32.0% 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 2 individuals (or about 0.38% 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 21 individuals (or about 4.02% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 2 (or about 0.38% 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. 68 (or about 13.03% 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 15 individuals (or about 2.87% of the population) did not answer the question.
Education
In Kienberg about 211 or (40.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 46 or (8.8%) 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 46 who completed tertiary schooling, 69.6% were Swiss men, 23.9% were Swiss women.
During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 33 students in the Kienberg 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 13 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 20 students in primary school. 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 Kienberg attend their school in a neighboring municipality.
, there were 42 students from Kienberg who attended schools outside the municipality.