Kappelen 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

Kappelen has an area, , of 10.96 km² (4.2 sq mi). Of this area, 8.04 km² (3.1 sq mi) or 73.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 1.56 km² (0.602319367404355 sq mi) or 14.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.19 km² (0.459461568725117 sq mi) or 10.9% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.04 km² (9.9 acre) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes and 0.05 km² (12.4 acre) or 0.5% is unproductive land.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.7%. 13.7% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 67.7% is used for growing crops and 4.8% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Demographics

Kappelen has a population (as of ) of . , 6.4% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 21.5%, mostly due to immigration into the municipality. Most of the population speaks German (87.2%), with Arabic being second most common ( 1.6%) and Albanian being third ( 1.5%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was 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 52.8% 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....

 (15.5%), 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....

 (9.8%) and the Green

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:...

 (8%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 26% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.5% and the seniors (over 64 years old) make up 13.5%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Kappelen about 73.9% 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...

).

Kappelen has an unemployment rate of 0.84%. , there were 113 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 32 businesses involved in this agricultural sector. 309 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 30 businesses in this manufacturing sector. 112 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 24 businesses in the services sector.

Transport

Kappelen is home to Biel-Kappelen Airport, which has an ICAO

International Civil Aviation Organization airport code

The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-character alphanumeric code designating each airport around the world. These codes are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators.The ICAO codes are used by air traffic...

code of LSZP.