Gals 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 Seeland administrative district

Seeland (administrative district)

Seeland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Seeland administrative region. It contains 46 municipalities with an area of and a population of 67,209....

 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

Gals has an area, , of 7.86 km² (3 sq mi). Of this area, 4.19 km² (1.6 sq mi) or 53.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.67 km² (1 sq mi) or 34.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.64 km² (0.247105381499222 sq mi) or 8.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.4 km² (0.154440863437014 sq mi) or 5.1% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.1% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.4%. 32.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.5% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 46.1% is used for growing crops and 5.5% is pastures, while 1.8% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

The municipality lies between the Zihl Canal (Thielle), Lake Biel

Lake Biel

Lake Biel or Lake Bienne is a lake in the west of Switzerland. Together with Lake Morat and Lake Neuchâtel, it is one of the three large lakes in the Jura region of Switzerland. It lies approximately at , at the language boundary between German & French speaking areas.The lake is 15 km long and up...

 and Jolimont

Jolimont (mountain)

The Jolimont is a hill that stretches Southwest to Northeast for about 4 km along the Thielle canal, between the Lake of Neuchâtel and the Lake of Bienne, in the Seeland, Switzerland....

. It includes the sections Bethlehem, Zihlbrücke and the Massnahmenzentrum St. Johannsen.

Demographics

Gals has a population (as of ) of . , 7.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 12.2%. Most of the population speaks German (79.0%), with French being second most common (15.5%) and Spanish being third ( 0.7%).

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 36.1% 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....

 (24.8%), 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....

 (11.4%) 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:...

 (10.8%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 18.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 65.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Gals about 76.5% 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...

).

Gals has an unemployment rate of 0.8%. , there were 63 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 19 businesses involved in this sector. 187 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 8 businesses in this sector. 229 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 22 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	221
1850	476
1900	637
1920	757
1950	636
2000	689

External links