Eriz 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 Thun

Thun (administrative district)

Thun District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Oberland administrative region. It contains 35 municipalities with an area of and a population of 103,233....

 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

Eriz has an area, , of 21.77 km² (8.4 sq mi). Of this area, 9.86 km² (3.8 sq mi) or 45.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 9.78 km² (3.8 sq mi) or 44.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.6 km² (0.231661295155521 sq mi) or 2.8% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.13 km² (32.1 acre) or 0.6% is either rivers or lakes and 1.41 km² (0.544404043615474 sq mi) or 6.5% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.2%. 39.3% of the total land area is heavily forested and 4.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 14.8% is pastures and 30.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams. Of the unproductive areas, 4.4% is unproductive vegetation and 2.1% is too rocky for vegetation.

The municipality is scattered around the foothills and valleys of the Alps. It is located north of the Zulg river, on the south flank of the Honegg and west flank of the Hohgant

Hohgant

Hohgant is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, located in the Canton of Berne, Switzerland.Several caves developing in the Urgonian limestone formation have their entrances on the Hohgant mountain. The F1 cave is connected to the Siebenhengste cave network.-External links:*...

. It is divided into Ausser- and Inner-Eriz. Ausser-Eriz (Outer Eriz) includes Äppenschwendi, Bühl, Kapfern and Losenegg. Inner-Eriz includes Halten, Niedermatt, Linden (also known as Dörfli), Bieten and Scheidzaun. It is part of 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 Schwarzenegg.

Demographics

Eriz has a population (as of ) of . , 2.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -5.1%. Most of the population speaks German (98.0%), with English being second most common (1.0%) and Albanian being third (0.4%).

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 83.1% 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....

 (4.3%), the local small left-wing parties (3.8%) and 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...

 (2.8%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 27.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 57% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.9%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Eriz about 55.8% 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...

).

Eriz has an unemployment rate of 0.97%. , there were 151 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 49 businesses involved in this sector. 12 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 6 businesses in this sector. 46 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 13 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	313
1850	642
1900	609
1950	663
2000	502