Belpberg 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....

.

The villages historic dependency on agriculture, dairy farming

Dairy farming

Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...

 and cattle breeding have continued to the present day. There is otherwise little employment within the commune, and most of the working inhabitants commute

Commuting

Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...

 to nearby towns, particularly Bern.

History

Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 and Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic coinage points to an early settlement in the area. The first documented use of the name Belpberge is found in 1342, with the versions Belperg (1380) and Beltperg (1390) appearing later. The etymology of the word stem Belp is unclear.

Geography

Belpberg has an area, , of 5.7 km² (2.2 sq mi). Of this area, 3.74 km² (1.4 sq mi) or 65.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while1.61 km² (0.621624475333981 sq mi) or 28.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.31 km² (0.119691669163686 sq mi) or 5.4% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.0%. 26.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 36.1% is used for growing crops and 27.9% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops.

It is located on a hill that shares the town's name, between the Aare river and the Gürbetal

Gürbetal

Gürbetal in Switzerland lies between the cities of Bern and Thun, west of the Aare river. It contains the municipality of Seftigen and those that surround it. The valley is named after the Gürbe river which flows through it. The largest town in the Gürbe valley is Belp...

. It includes a number of 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...

 (including Linden, Oberhäusern, Hofstetten, z.T. Heitern) and scattered farmhouses. It belongs to the parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of Belp

Belp

Belp is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is close to Bern's Belp Airport.-Geography:...

.

Demographics

Belpberg has a population (as of ) of . , 2.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -2.3%. Most of the population speaks German (99.5%), with Italian being second most common (0.3%) and Portuguese being third (0.3%).

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 59.2% 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....

 (10.5%), the local small left-wing parties (7.7%) and 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....

 (7%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.3% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.5% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.2%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Belpberg about 83.1% 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...

).

Belpberg has an unemployment rate of 1.21%. , there were 107 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 33 businesses involved in this sector. 6 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 3 businesses in this sector. 14 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 5 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
764	229
1850	501
1900	439
1950	433
2000	373