Mirchel 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...

 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

Mirchel has an area, , of 2.35 square kilometre (0.907340072692457 sq mi). Of this area, 1.8 km² (0.694983885466563 sq mi) or 76.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.25 km² (0.0965255396481338 sq mi) or 10.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.31 km² (0.119691669163686 sq mi) or 13.2% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.0%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.3% of the area Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 51.9% is used for growing crops and 19.6% is pastures, while 5.1% is used for orchards or vine crops.

It is located in the upper Kiesental (Kiesen Valley) and includes the village of Mirchel, the hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Gmeis and scattered farm house clusters and isolated farm houses.

Demographics

Mirchel has a population (as of ) of . , 0.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 8.5%. Most of the population speaks German (99.2%), with English being second most common ( 0.4%) and French 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 61.2% 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....

 (9.9%), 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:...

 (8.7%) and the local small left-wing parties (7.6%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 61.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.6%. In Mirchel about 78.1% 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...

).

Mirchel has an unemployment rate of 0.78%. , there were 59 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 23 businesses involved in this sector. 6 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 4 businesses in this sector. 69 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	250
1850	421
1900	474
1950	447
2000	491