Wolfenschiessen
Encyclopedia
Wolfenschiessen 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 Nidwalden
Nidwalden
Nidwalden is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population is 40,287 of which 4,046 are foreigners. The capital is Stans.-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....

.

Coat of arms

The municipality's coat of arms is Azure, a Wolf rampant Argent pierced by an Arrow in bend sinister Or. This is an example of canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...

 where the name of the municipality is translated or represented on the coat of arms. In this case, Wolfenschiessen means "to shoot the wolf."

Geography

Wolfenschiessen has an area, , of 92.8 km² (35.8 sq mi). Of this area, 40.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 33% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (24.9%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Demographics

Wolfenschiessen has a population (as of ) of . , 9.7% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 0.3%. Most of the population speaks German (93.6%), with Albanian being second most common ( 2.7%) and Serbo-Croatian being third ( 1.4%). the gender distribution of the population was 51.7% male and 48.3% female.

there are 674 households, of which 348 households (or about 51.6%) contain only one or two individuals. 111 or about 16.5% are large households, with at least five members.

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 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....

 which received 89.3% of the vote. The next two most popular parties were the local, small right-wing parties (10.7%) and the SPS
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (0.1%).

In Wolfenschiessen about 58.6% 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...

).

Wolfenschiessen has an unemployment rate of 0.88%. , there were 228 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 94 businesses involved in this sector. 138 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 26 businesses in this sector. 268 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 61 businesses in this sector.

The historical population is given in the following table:
year population
1960 1,647
1970 1,470
1980 1,524
1990 1,765
2000 2,041
2005 1,999

Sights

The main sights of Wolfenschiessen are: the parish church St. Maria, the chapel St. Joder in Altzellen, the mansions Hechhuis, and the Grossitz mansion.
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