Knutwil
Encyclopedia
Knutwil 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 district of Sursee 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 Lucerne 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

Knutwil is first mentioned in the early 12th Century as Gnuthwilare. In 1245 it was mentioned as Knutwile.

Geography

Knutwil has an area of 9.8 km² (3.8 sq mi). Of this area, 69% is used for agricultural purposes, while 20% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 10.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.2%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). , 20.04% of the total land area was forested. Of the agricultural land, 66.16% is used for farming or pastures, while 2.86% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the settled areas, 4.81% is covered with buildings, 0.41% is industrial, 0.2% is parks or greenbelts and 5.32% is transportation infrastructure. Of the unproductive areas, 0.1% is unproductive flowing water (rivers) and 0.1% is other unproductive land.

The municipality is located on a line of hills on the south-west edge of the Surental. It consists of the village of Knutwil and the settlements of St. Erhard, Eriswil, Wolen, Schaubern and Hitzligen.

Demographics

Knutwil has a population (as of ) of . , 6.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 7.9%. Most of the population speaks German (97.2%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 0.9%) and French being third ( 0.4%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was 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...

 which received 36.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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....

 (27.2%), 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...

 (24%) 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:...

 (7.2%).

The age distribution in Knutwil is; 436 people or 25.7% of the population is 0–19 years old. 416 people or 24.5% are 20–39 years old, and 615 people or 36.2% are 40–64 years old. The senior population distribution is 185 people or 10.9% are 65–79 years old, 41 or 2.4% are 80–89 years old and 4 people or 0.2% of the population are 90+ years old.

The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Knutwil about 74% 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...

).

there are 564 households, of which 129 households (or about 22.9%) contain only a single individual. 76 or about 13.5% are large households, with at least five members. there were 386 inhabited buildings in the municipality, of which 308 were built only as housing, and 78 were mixed use
Mixed-use development
Mixed-use development is the use of a building, set of buildings, or neighborhood for more than one purpose. Since the 1920s, zoning in some countries has required uses to be separated. However, when jobs, housing, and commercial activities are located close together, a community's transportation...

 buildings. There were 230 single family homes, 49 double family homes, and 29 multi-family homes in the municipality. Most homes were either two (187) or three (79) story structures. There were only 28 single story buildings and 14 four or more story buildings.

Knutwil has an unemployment rate of 1.45%. , there were 127 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 45 businesses involved in this sector. 175 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 27 businesses in this sector. 282 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 41 businesses in this sector. 52.9% of the population of the municipality were employed in some capacity. At the same time, females made up 39.5% of the workforce.

the religious membership of Knutwil was; 1,291 (81.6%) were Roman Catholic, and 139 (8.8%) were Protestant, with an additional 17 (1.07%) that were of some other Christian faith. There are 25 individuals (1.58% of the population) who are Muslim. Of the rest; there were 9 (0.57%) individuals who belong to another religion, 49 (3.1%) who do not belong to any organized religion, 53 (3.35%) who did not answer the question.

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1574 304
1850 1,316
1900 933
1950 986
2000 1,583
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