Mötschwil 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 administrative district of Emmental

Emmental (administrative district)

Emmental District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Emmental-Oberaargau administrative region. It contains 42 municipalities with an area of and a population of 93,082....

 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

Mötschwil was first mentioned in 1328 as Mötschwile. Until 1910 it was known as Mötschwil-Schleumen.

Geography

Mötschwil has an area, , of 2.95 km² (1.1 sq mi). Of this area, 1.87 km² (0.72201103656804 sq mi) or 63.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.89 km² (0.343630921147356 sq mi) or 30.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.16 km² (0.0617763453748056 sq mi) or 5.4% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.7% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.7%. 30.2% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 53.2% is used for growing crops and 8.8% is pastures, while 1.4% is used for orchards or vine crops.

Mötschwil includes the village Mötschwil (with Grüt) and Schleumen as well as 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...

 Kreuzweg (Schulhaus).

Demographics

Mötschwil has a population (as of ) of . , 13.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 2.3%. Most of the population speaks German (99.1%), with the rest speaking English.

In the 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 52.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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:...

 (13%), the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

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

 (9.9%) and the local small right-wing parties (8.7%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 13.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 70.5% and the seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.1%. In Mötschwil about 17.1% 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...

).

Mötschwil has an unemployment rate of 27%. , no one was involved in the primary economic sector. 11 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 5 businesses in this sector. 11 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with no local businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	112
1850	198
1900	234
1950	208
2000	112