Wichtrach
Wichtrach is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
HistoryEdit
Wichtrach was created on 1 January 2004, by uniting the independent municipalities of Niederwichtrach and Oberwichtrach. The parish church of Oberwichtrach was first mentioned in 1180. The two Wichtrach villages were first mentioned in 1180 as Wichtracho.<ref name=HDS/>
GeographyEdit
Wichtrach has an area of Template:Swiss area.Template:Swiss area data As of 2012, a total of Template:Convert or 63.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while Template:Convert or 22.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, Template:Convert or 13.1% is settled (buildings or roads), Template:Convert or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and Template:Convert or 0.2% is unproductive land.<ref name=BFS_land>Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics 2009 data Template:In lang accessed 25 March 2010</ref>
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 6.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 49.9% is used for growing crops and 12.1% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.<ref name=BFS_land/>
On 1 January 2004 the former municipalities of Niederwichtrach and Oberwichtrach merged into the municipality of Wichtrach.<ref>Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz Template:In lang accessed 9 February 2013</ref>
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.<ref>Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz Template:In lang accessed 4 April 2011</ref>
DemographicsEdit
Wichtrach has a population (Template:As of) of Template:Swiss populations.Template:Swiss populations ref Template:As of, 5.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0%. Migration accounted for -0.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.5%.<ref name=SFSO>Swiss Federal Statistical Office accessed 8 May 2013</ref>
Most of the population (Template:As of) speaks German (94.7%) as their first language, French is the second most common (0.5%) and Italian is the third (1.1%).<ref name=SFSO/>
Template:As of, the population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The population was made up of 1,897 Swiss men (47.2% of the population) and 120 (3.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,903 Swiss women (47.4%) and 99 (2.5%) non-Swiss women.<ref name=BE_Stat>Statistical office of the Canton of Bern Template:In lang accessed 4 January 2012</ref>
Template:As of, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.3%.<ref name=SFSO/>
Template:As of, there were 488 households that consist of only one person and 76 households with five or more people.<ref>Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Haushaltsgrösse Template:In lang accessed 8 May 2013</ref> Template:As of, the construction rate of new housing units was 0.2 new units per 1000 residents.<ref name=SFSO/> The vacancy rate for the municipality, Template:As of, was 2.78%.
Historic PopulationEdit
The historical population is given in the following chart:<ref>Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Bevölkerungsentwicklung nach Region, 1850-2000 Template:Webarchive Template:In lang accessed 29 January 2011</ref><ref name=HDS_Niederwichtrach>Template:HDS</ref><ref name=HDS_Oberwichtrach>Template:HDS</ref><ref name=HDS>Template:HDS</ref>
<timeline> Colors=
id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8)
ImageSize = width: auto height:500 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:90 right:35 Legend = columns:3 left:20 top:70 columnwidth:160 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4200 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:700 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:140 start:0 Colors=
id:NI value:yellowgreen legend:Niederwichtrach id:OB value:green legend:Oberwichtrach id:WI value:teal legend:Wichtrach
PlotData=
color:yellowgreen width:30 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from: 0 till:706 text:"706" color:NI bar:1860 from: 0 till:675 text:"675" color:NI bar:1870 from: 0 till:685 text:"685" color:NI bar:1880 from: 0 till:622 text:"622" color:NI bar:1890 from: 0 till:642 text:"642" color:NI bar:1900 from: 0 till:720 text:"720" color:NI bar:1910 from: 0 till:732 text:"732" color:NI bar:1920 from: 0 till:807 text:"807" color:NI bar:1930 from: 0 till:761 text:"761" color:NI bar:1940 from: 0 till:745 text:"745" color:NI bar:1950 from: 0 till:769 text:"769" color:NI bar:1960 from: 0 till:710 text:"710" color:NI bar:1970 from: 0 till:799 text:"799" color:NI bar:1980 from: 0 till:858 text:"858" color:NI bar:1990 from: 0 till:1188 text:"1,188" color:NI bar:2000 from: 0 till:1322 text:"1,322" color:NI bar:2010 from: 0 till:4046 text:"4,046" color:WI bar:1850 from: 706 till:1268 text:"562" color:OB bar:1860 from: 675 till:1213 text:"538" color:OB bar:1870 from: 685 till:1185 text:"500" color:OB bar:1880 from: 622 till:1182 text:"560" color:OB bar:1890 from: 642 till:1157 text:"515" color:OB bar:1900 from: 720 till:1370 text:"650" color:OB bar:1910 from: 732 till:1500 text:"768" color:OB bar:1920 from: 807 till:1611 text:"804" color:OB bar:1930 from: 761 till:1555 text:"794" color:OB bar:1940 from: 745 till:1607 text:"862" color:OB bar:1950 from: 769 till:1664 text:"895" color:OB bar:1960 from: 710 till:1632 text:"922" color:OB bar:1970 from: 799 till:1921 text:"1,122" color:OB bar:1980 from: 858 till:2522 text:"1,664" color:OB bar:1990 from: 1188 till:3290 text:"2,102" color:OB bar:2000 from: 1322 till:3699 text:"2,377" color:OB
</timeline>
PoliticsEdit
In the 2015 federal election, the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 36.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (14.5%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (13.8%) and the FDP.The Liberals (9.6%). In the federal election, a total of 1,508 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 48.0%.<ref name=election_2015>Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2015 Election Template:In lang accessed 22 March 2016</ref>
EconomyEdit
Template:As of, Wichtrach had an unemployment rate of 1.32%. Template:As of, there were a total of 967 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 120 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 46 businesses involved in this sector. 291 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 41 businesses in this sector. 556 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 92 businesses in this sector.<ref name=SFSO/>
Template:As of there were a total of 760 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 78, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 270 of which 127 or (47.0%) were in manufacturing and 143 (53.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 412. In the tertiary sector; 111 or 26.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 15 or 3.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 42 or 10.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 1.2% were in the information industry, 38 or 9.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 71 or 17.2% were in education and 31 or 7.5% were in health care.<ref>Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3 Template:In lang</ref>
Of the working population, 27.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 50.2% used a private car.<ref name=SFSO/>
ReligionEdit
In 2000 about 78.2% of the population belonged to a Protestant church, 9.4% were Roman Catholic and 5.6% had no religious affiliation.<ref name=SFSO/>
EducationEdit
In Wichtrach about 62.5% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 18.9% have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).<ref name=SFSO/>
The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory Kindergarten, followed by six years of Primary school. This is followed by three years of obligatory lower Secondary school where the students are separated according to ability and aptitude. Following the lower Secondary students may attend additional schooling or they may enter an apprenticeship.<ref>Template:Cite report</ref>
During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 588 students attending classes in Wichtrach. There were 4 kindergarten classes with a total of 78 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 6.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 9.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 13 primary classes and 258 students. Of the primary students, 6.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 12 lower secondary classes with a total of 252 students. There were 3.2% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language.<ref name=School>Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf documentTemplate:In lang accessed 4 January 2012</ref>
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Municipalities of the administrative district of Bern-Mittelland Template:Authority control