Konolfingen 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 Bern-Mittelland administrative district

Bern-Mittelland (administrative district)

Bern-Mittelland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Bern-Mittelland administrative region, and is the only district in the region...

 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....

.

History

Konolfingen is first mentioned in 1148 as Chonolfingen. It is a relatively new municipality, having been formed from the union of Gysenstein and Stalden in 1933.

Geography

Konolfingen has an area, , of 12.79 km² (4.9 sq mi). Of this area, 8.48 km² (3.3 sq mi) or 66.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.44 km² (0.942089266965785 sq mi) or 19.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.85 km² (0.71428899339619 sq mi) or 14.5% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.01 km² (2.5 acre) or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.8%. 18.5% of the total land area is heavily forested. Of the agricultural land, 39.4% is used for growing crops and 24.6% is pastures, while 2.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

Lying at an altitude of over 650 metres (2,132.5 ft), Konolfingen is often referred to as the "gateway to the Emmental

Emmental

For the cheese made in the region, see Emmental .The Emmental is a region in west central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the Emme and Ilfis rivers. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming...

."

The municipality includes the new village center which connects the older villages of Konolfingen-Dorf and Stalden. It also includes the farming 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 Gysenstein, Herolfingen, Hürnberg, Ursellen, Ballenbüel and Hötschigen as well as scattered individual farm houses.

Demographics

Konolfingen has a population (as of ) of . , 7.5% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 6.8%. Most of the population speaks German (92.9%), with Italian being second most common ( 1.3%) and Albanian being third ( 1.0%).

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 39.4% 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....

 (17%), 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....

 (11.3%) 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...

 (10.4%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 23.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 59.8% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.7%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Konolfingen about 75.2% 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...

).

Konolfingen has an unemployment rate of 1.13%. , there were 225 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 73 businesses involved in this sector. 803 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 50 businesses in this sector. 1299 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 142 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1941	3,343
1950	3,656
2000	4,606