Hersiwil
Encyclopedia
Hersiwil 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 Wasseramt
Wasseramt (district)
Wasseramt District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland, situated to the south of the canton. Together with the Bucheggberg District, it forms the Amtei of Wasseramt-Bucheggberg...

 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....

.

History

Hersiwil is first mentioned in 1324 as Hersenwile. It formed a double municipality with Heinrichswil until 1798, when Winistorf joined the other two to form the triple municipality of Hersiwil-Heinrichswil-Winistorf. In 1854 it split into three, separate, independent municipalities. In 1993, Heinrichswil and Winistorf merged again, but Hersiwil remained independent.

Geography

Hersiwil has an area, , of 1.43 square kilometre (0.552126086787325 sq mi). Of this area, 0.97 km² (0.374519093834759 sq mi) or 67.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.32 km² (0.123552690749611 sq mi) or 22.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.09 km² (22.2 acre) or 6.3% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.7% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.5%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 43.4% is used for growing crops and 21.0% is pastures, while 3.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The farming municipality is located in the Wasseramt district.

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 Or a Ploughshare doubled Sable.

Demographics

Hersiwil has a population of . , 1.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 7.1%. It has changed at a rate of 5.3% due to migration and at a rate of -2.4% due to births and deaths.

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....

 (167 or 99.4%) with the rest speaking Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...



, the gender distribution of the population was 48.4% male and 51.6% female. The population was made up of 87 Swiss men (47.8% of the population) and 1 (0.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 93 Swiss women (51.1%) and 1 (0.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 66 or about 39.3% were born in Hersiwil and lived there in 2000. There were 61 or 36.3% who were born in the same canton, while 34 or 20.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 4 or 2.4% were born outside of Switzerland.

In there was 1 live birth to Swiss citizens and were 2 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There was 1 Swiss woman who migrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there was 1 non-Swiss woman who migrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 2 and the non-Swiss population increased by 1. This represents a population growth rate of 1.7%.

The age distribution, , in Hersiwil is; 18 children or 10.7% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 31 teenagers or 18.5% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 7 people or 4.2% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 58 people or 34.5% are between 25 and 44, and 30 people or 17.9% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 18 people or 10.7% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 6 people or 3.6% who are over 80.

, there were 69 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 83 married people, 10 widows or widowers and 6 people who are divorced.

the average number of residents per living room was 78.7((clarify}} which is more people per room than 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 0% 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 61 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 14 households that consist of only one person and 7 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 62 households that answered this question, 22.6% 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 15 married couples without children, 27 married couples with children There were 2 single parents with a child or children. There was 1 household that was made up of unrelated people and 1 household that was made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.

there were 37 single family homes (or 66.1% of the total) out of a total of 56 inhabited buildings. There were 6 multi-family buildings (10.7%), along with 11 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (19.6%) and 2 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (3.6%). Of the single family homes 6 were built before 1919, while 10 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (10) were built between 1991 and 1995.

there were 66 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 15. There were no single room apartments and 36 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 61 apartments (92.4% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 2 apartments (3.0%) were seasonally occupied and 3 apartments (4.5%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents.

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 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...

 which received 30.17% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP
FDP.The Liberals
FDP.The Liberals is a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It is the joint-largest party in the Federal Council, third-largest party in the National Council, and second-largest in the Council of States....

 (20%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (18.64%) 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:...

 (15.93%). In the federal election, a total of 86 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 61.0%.

Economy

, Hersiwil had an unemployment rate of 8%. , there were 11 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 4 businesses involved in this sector. 1 person was employed in the secondary sector and there was 1 business in this sector. 4 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with businesses in this sector. There were 86 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.0% 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 16. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 6, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 9 of which 1 was in manufacturing and 8 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 1, in the movement and storage of goods.

, there were 13 workers who commuted into the municipality and 66 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 61.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 74.4% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 102 or 60.7% were Roman Catholic, while 52 or 31.0% 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...

. 10 (or about 5.95% 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 4 individuals (or about 2.38% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Hersiwil about 80 or (47.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 16 or (9.5%) 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 16 who completed tertiary schooling, 81.3% were Swiss men, 12.5% were Swiss women.

, there was one student in Hersiwil who came from another municipality, while 29 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

External links

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