Wassen 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 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 Uri

Canton of Uri

Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard Pass. German is the primary language spoken in Uri...

 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

Wassen has an area, , of 97 km² (37.5 sq mi). Of this area, 12.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 18.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (68.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). , 9.6% of the total land area was heavily forested, while 6.8% is covered in small trees and shrubbery. Of the agricultural land, 2.5% is used for orchards or vine crops and 10.1% is used for alpine pastures. Of the settled areas, 0.2% is covered with buildings, and 0.8% is transportation infrastructure. Of the unproductive areas, 0.1% is unproductive standing water (ponds or lakes), 1.2% is unproductive flowing water (rivers), 48.5% is too rocky for vegetation, and 18.3% is other unproductive land.

It is on the Gotthard line

Gotthardbahn

Gotthardbahn was the name of a private Swiss railway company which operated the railway line from Immensee to Chiasso . Nowadays this term usually does not refer to that company, but to the railway line itself...

 and the rail line makes a double loop near Wassen to help the trains deal with the climb. The Susten Pass

Susten Pass

Susten Pass is a mountain pass in the Swiss Alps. The pass road, built from 1938–1945, connects Innertkirchen in the canton of Bern with Wassen in the canton of Uri...

 connects Wassen with Innertkirchen

Innertkirchen

Innertkirchen is a municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.Its coat of arms depicts an eagle wearing an imperial crown.-History:...

.

Demographics

Wassen has a population (as of ) of . , 7.2% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has decreased at a rate of -16%. Most of the population speaks German (94.2%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common (2.4%) and Italian being third (1.3%). the gender distribution of the population was 51.8% male and 48.2% female.

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 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....

 party received 85.9% of the vote.

In Wassen about 53% 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...

).

Wassen has an unemployment rate of 0.64%. , there were 43 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 18 businesses involved in this sector. 34 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 7 businesses in this sector. 121 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 18 businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1970	764
1980	671
1990	545
2000	465
2005	466
2007	456