Sachseln 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 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 Obwalden

Obwalden

Obwalden is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population is 33,997 of which 4,043 are foreigners. Its capital is Sarnen. The canton contains the geographical centre of Switzerland.-History:...

 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

Sachseln has an area, , of 53.8 square kilometres (20.8 sq mi). Of this area, 45.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 39.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 3.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (12.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

The municipality is located on Lake Sarnen (Sarnersee). It consists of the village of Sachseln and the hamlets

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 Edisried, Ewil and Flüeli-Ranft.

The geographic center of Switzerland is in Sachseln.

Demographics

Sachseln has a population (as of ) of . , 13.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 8.7%. Most of the population speaks German (92.8%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 1.5%) and Portuguese being third ( 1.1%). the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. there are 1,417 households, while in the total was 2,104 with 1,867 households in Sachseln and 237 in
Flüeli-Ranft.

In the 2007 federal election

Swiss 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 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 36.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...

 (30.9%), the Other (19.9%) and the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

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

 (13%).

In Sachseln about 71% 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...

).

Sachseln has an unemployment rate of 0.76%. , there were 251 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 100 businesses involved in this sector. 1,452 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 46 businesses in this sector. 709 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 105 businesses in this sector.

the religious population distribution was; 3,641 or 78.8% are Roman Catholic, while 315 or 6.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church

Swiss 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...

. There are 664 individuals (or about 14.37% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census) or no church.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1799	1,250
1837	1,358
1850	1,506
1880	1,701
1900	1,628
1950	2,423
1960	2,721
1970	3,059
1980	3,406
1990	3,690
2000	4,241
2007	4,542
2008	4,620

Sights

The main sights of Sacheln are: the local saint Bruder Klaus (place of birth, place of residence, museum, crust Flüeli-Ranft), a church of pilgrimage, the school building Mattli, and the geographical centre of Switzerland

Geographical centre of Switzerland

The geographical centre of Switzerland has the coordinates . It is located at Älggi-Alp in the municipality of Sachseln, Obwalden. The point is the centre of mass determined in 1988 by Swisstopo....

Aelggi.