Laupen 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 Bern-Mittelland administrative district

Bern-Mittelland (administrative district)

Bern-Mittelland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Bern-Mittelland administrative region, and is the only district in the region...

 and its district capital, situated 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....

.

History

Laupen is first mentioned in 1130-33 as Loupa. In 1173 it was mentioned, in French, as Loyes.

Geography

Laupen has an area, , of 4.12 km² (1.6 sq mi). Of this area, 1.59 km² (0.613902432162131 sq mi) or 38.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.23 km² (0.474905655068818 sq mi) or 29.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.05 km² (0.405407266522162 sq mi) or 25.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.21 km² (0.0810814533044324 sq mi) or 5.1% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 2.9% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 13.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.6%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.7% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2.4%. 26.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 30.6% is used for growing crops and 7.8% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

It is located on the right bank of the Sense River near where the river enters the Saane River

Saane/Sarine

Saane or Sarine is one of the largest rivers in Switzerland. It is 128 km long and has a drainage area of 1,892 km². It is a tributary of the river Aar...

.

Demographics

Laupen has a population (as of ) of . , 8.9% 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 (92.3%), with French being second most common ( 1.5%) and Italian being third ( 1.5%).

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 30.3% 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....

 (24.3%), 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....

 (18.2%) 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:...

 (11.5%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.4%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Laupen about 79.5% 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...

).

Laupen has an unemployment rate of 2.31%. , there were 26 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 378 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 31 businesses in this sector. 732 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 111 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1850	651
1900	957
1950	1,418
1970	2,139
2000	2,796

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