Waltenschwil
Encyclopedia
Waltenschwil 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 Muri
Muri (district)
Muri District is a district in the Swiss Canton of Aargau with the administrative capital of Muri. It covers the central and southern part of Freiamt and has a population of .-Geography:...

 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 Aargau
Aargau
Aargau is one of the more northerly cantons of Switzerland. It comprises the lower course of the river Aare, which is why the canton is called Aar-gau .-History:...

 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

Waltenschwil has an area, , of 4.56 square kilometres (1.8 sq mi). Of this area, 2.58 km² (0.99614356916874 sq mi) or 56.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.95 km² (0.366797050662908 sq mi) or 20.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.03 km² (0.397685223350311 sq mi) or 22.6% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.02 km² (4.9 acre) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.1% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 12.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.8%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 19.5% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 45.4% is used for growing crops and 11.0% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

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 Azure a Crescent increscent between four Mullets of Five Argent one in dexter and three in sinister in pale.

Demographics

Waltenschwil has a population of , 9.5% of the population are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of 13.4%. 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....

(95.7%), with Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 being second most common ( 0.9%) and Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...

 being third ( 0.7%).

The age distribution, , in Waltenschwil is; 288 children or 12.1% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 335 teenagers or 14.0% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 261 people or 10.9% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 313 people or 13.1% are between 30 and 39, 462 people or 19.4% are between 40 and 49, and 339 people or 14.2% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 207 people or 8.7% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 130 people or 5.4% are between 70 and 79, there are 49 people or 2.1% who are between 80 and 89,and there are 2 people or 0.1% who are 90 and older.

the average number of residents per living room was 0.57 which is about equal to the cantonal average of 0.57 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 67.2% 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 49 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 327 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 389 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. , there were 775 private households (homes and apartments) in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household. there were 501 single family homes (or 49.5% of the total) out of a total of 1,013 homes and apartments. There were a total of 16 empty apartments for a 1.6% vacancy rate. , the construction rate of new housing units was 15.4 new units per 1000 residents.

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 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 36% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were 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...

 (22.2%), the SP
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (17.2%) and 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....

 (9.9%).

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1975 1,166
1980 1,207
1990 1,727
2000 2,038

Economy

, Waltenschwil had an unemployment rate of 1.82%. , there were 59 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 19 businesses involved in this sector. 66 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 21 businesses in this sector. 379 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 76 businesses in this sector.

there were 1,130 workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 907 or about 80.3% of the residents worked outside Waltenschwil while 183 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 406 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality. Of the working population, 8.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.8% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,273 or 62.7% were Roman Catholic, while 478 or 23.6% 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...

. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 individual who belonged to the Christian Catholic
Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland
The Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland is the Swiss member church of the Union of Utrecht, also known as Old Catholic Church, originally founded by the jansenists, with a later influx of discontented Catholics following their disappointment with the First Vatican Council. It has 14,000...

 faith.

Education

In Waltenschwil about 82.3% 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...

). Of the school age population , there are 227 students attending primary school in the municipality.
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