Hellsau 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 Burgdorf

Burgdorf (district)

Burgdorf District was a district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland with its seat at Burgdorf Castle in Burgdorf. It included 24 cities and towns in an area of :-External links :...

, in the canton of Bern, 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

Häutligen has an area, , of 3.07 km² (1.2 sq mi). Of this area, 2.09 km² (0.806953511458398 sq mi) or 68.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.84 km² (0.324325813217729 sq mi) or 27.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.11 km² (27.2 acre) or 3.6% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. 27.4% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 45.9% is used for growing crops and 18.9% is pastures, while 3.3% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The village of Hellsau includes the village with Halde and the 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...

 of Freienhof and Moos. Hellsau belongs to the parish

Parish (Catholic Church)

In the Roman Catholic Church, a parish is the lowest ecclesiastical geographical subdivision: from ecclesiastical province to diocese to deanery to parish.-Requirements:A parish needs two things under common law to become a parish...

 of Koppigen

Koppigen

-External links:*...

.

Demographics

Hellsau has a population (as of ) of . , 1.7% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 3.4%. Most of the population speaks German (97.9%), with French being second most common ( 0.5%) and Dutch being third ( 0.5%).

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 75.1% 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....

 (9.4%), 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....

 (5%) 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:...

 (3.8%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 32.1% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 58% and the seniors (over 64 years old) make up 9.8%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Hellsau about 82.5% 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...

).

Hellsau has an unemployment rate of 0.25%. , there were 21 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 81 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 4 businesses in this sector. 21 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 4 businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	89
1850	216
1900	210
1950	178
2000	193