Heiligenschwendi 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

Heiligenschwendi has an area, , of 5.55 km² (2.1 sq mi). Of this area, 2.71 km² (1 sq mi) or 48.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.42 km² (0.934367223793935 sq mi) or 43.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.41 km² (0.158301885022939 sq mi) or 7.4% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.4% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. 42.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.4% is used for growing crops and 43.8% is pastures, while 1.6% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

The municipality is located on a terrace, about 900–1125 m (2,952.8–3,690.9 ft) above the right shore of Lake Thun

Lake Thun

Lake Thun is an Alpine lake in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. It took its name from the city of Thun, on its northern shore.Lake Thun's approximately 2,500 km² large catchment area frequently causes local flooding after heavy rainfalls...

. It includes the Dörfli Heiligneschwendi, Schwendi with its Hospital, Halten, and scattered farm houses.

Demographics

Heiligenschwendi has a population (as of ) of . , 11.3% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -8.7%. Most of the population speaks German (90.5%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 2.1%) and Italian being third ( 1.4%).

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 48.7% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the local small left-wing parties (14.3%), the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

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

 (10.9%) and the CSP

Christian Social Party (Switzerland)

The Christian Social Party is a political party in Switzerland. The CSP is more social democratic than the CVP. With the moderate Christian left as its background, the CSP commits itself to social democratic and environmentalist political solutions...

 (8.9%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 22.3%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Heiligenschwendi about 72.9% 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...

).

Heiligenschwendi has an unemployment rate of 0.96%. , there were 59 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 22 businesses involved in this sector. 11 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 3 businesses in this sector. 383 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 17 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	315
1850	532
1900	506
1920	962
1950	1,159
1970	646
2000	707