Bättwil
Encyclopedia
Bättwil 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 district of Dorneck
Dorneck (district)
Dorneck District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland, situated to the north of the canton. Together with Thierstein District, it forms the Amtei of Dorneck-Thierstein. Ithas a population of...

 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 Solothurn 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

Bättwil has an area, , of 1.67 square kilometre (0.644790604849534 sq mi). Of this area, 0.97 km² (0.374519093834759 sq mi) or 58.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.3 km² (0.115830647577761 sq mi) or 18.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.42 km² (0.162162906608865 sq mi) or 25.1% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.0% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 14.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.2%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 3.0%. Out of the forested land, 16.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 38.3% is used for growing crops and 12.6% is pastures, while 7.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The municipality is located in the Dorneck district. It is part of the exclave of Leimental, on the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 border.

Coat of arms

The blazon
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...

 of the municipal coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is Per fess Gules and Argent a Crozier counterchanged.

Demographics

Bättwil has a population of . , 12.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 30.4%.

Most of the population speaks German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 (877 or 89.9%), with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 being second most common (27 or 2.8%) and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 being third (23 or 2.4%). There are 21 people who speak French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

.

, the gender distribution of the population was 49.6% male and 50.4% female. The population was made up of 489 Swiss men (41.7% of the population) and 92 (7.8%) non-Swiss men. There were 503 Swiss women (42.9%) and 88 (7.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 185 or about 19.0% were born in Bättwil and lived there in 2000. There were 91 or 9.3% who were born in the same canton, while 542 or 55.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 138 or 14.1% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there were 9 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 4 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 5 while the foreign population increased by 1. There was 1 Swiss man and 1 Swiss woman who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 3 non-Swiss men and 4 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was a decrease of 13 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 5 people. This represents a population growth rate of -1.5%.

The age distribution, , in Bättwil is; 94 children or 9.6% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 194 teenagers or 19.9% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 32 people or 3.3% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 353 people or 36.2% are between 25 and 44, and 226 people or 23.2% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 65 people or 6.7% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 12 people or 1.2% who are over 80.

, there were 411 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 501 married individuals, 24 widows or widowers and 40 individuals who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.59 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.56 per room. In this case, a room is defined as space of a housing unit of at least 4 m² (43.1 sq ft) as normal bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, kitchens and habitable cellars and attics. About 64.2% of the total households were owner occupied, or in other words did not pay rent (though they may have a mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...

 or a rent-to-own agreement).

, there were 367 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. There were 80 households that consist of only one person and 30 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 371 households that answered this question, 21.6% were households made up of just one person and there were 2 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 104 married couples without children, 150 married couples with children There were 25 single parents with a child or children. There were 6 households that were made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 201 single family homes (or 75.0% of the total) out of a total of 268 inhabited buildings. There were 31 multi-family buildings (11.6%), along with 21 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (7.8%) and 15 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.6%). Of the single family homes 7 were built before 1919, while 114 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (60) were built between 1991 and 1995.

there were 378 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 129. There were 4 single room apartments and 187 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 346 apartments (91.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 21 apartments (5.6%) were seasonally occupied and 11 apartments (2.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 13.9 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.07%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Politics

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 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 32.08% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (23.28%), 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...

 (17.6%) 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:...

 (12.73%). In the federal election, a total of 360 votes were cast, and the voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 was 46.9%.

Economy

, Bättwil had an unemployment rate of 3.5%. , there were 33 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 7 businesses involved in this sector. 255 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 15 businesses in this sector. 292 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 50 businesses in this sector. There were 517 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.4% of the workforce.

the total number of full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent , is a unit to measure employed persons or students in a way that makes them comparable although they may work or study a different number of hours per week. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization...

 jobs was 487. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 26, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 245 of which 214 or (87.3%) were in manufacturing and 30 (12.2%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 216. In the tertiary sector; 61 or 28.2% were in the sale or repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 6.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 35 or 16.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 13 or 6.0% were technical professionals or scientists, 39 or 18.1% were in education and 6 or 2.8% were in health care.

, there were 557 workers who commuted into the municipality and 411 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.4 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 31.8% of the workforce coming into Bättwil are coming from outside Switzerland. Of the working population, 36.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 43.9% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 407 or 41.7% were Roman Catholic, while 284 or 29.1% 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...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 5 individuals (or about 0.51% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...

, and there were 19 individuals (or about 1.95% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 10 (or about 1.02% of the population) who were Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic. There were 3 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, 3 individuals who were Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 228 (or about 23.36% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable....

 or atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

, and 15 individuals (or about 1.54% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Bättwil about 418 or (42.8%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 148 or (15.2%) have completed 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...

). Of the 148 who completed tertiary schooling, 62.8% were Swiss men, 23.0% were Swiss women, 10.1% were non-Swiss men and 4.1% were non-Swiss women.

, there were 323 students in Bättwil who came from another municipality, while 125 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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