Auswil is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the Oberaargau administrative district in the canton of

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

History

Auswil is first mentioned around 855-860 as ''Ouvistwilare''. During the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...

the villages were protected by a fort on the Rohrbachberg. Around 1300, this fort was occupied by a

Ministerialis The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire. The word and its German translations, ''Minis ...

family (unfree knights in the service of the Kyburgs). In 1318 or 1323 this fort was destroyed by

. Through a series of gifts between the 9th and 14th centuries, Auswil was gradually given to the

Abbey of St. Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot w ...

. Under the Abbey, Auswil was part of the municipality of

Rohrbach Rohrbach or Röhrbach may refer to: Places Municipalities in Switzerland *Rohrbach, Switzerland, in the canton of Bern Municipalities in Germany *Rohrbach, Bavaria, in the district of Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria *Rohrbach, Birkenfeld, in the district o ...

. It first began to act as an independent municipality in the 19th century. In 1826, Auswil's first school opened, though the community of Rohrbachberg remained part of the Rohrbach school district. Agriculture remains a major part of the local economy with almost half of all jobs in this sector.

Geography

2012-03-17-Supra Argovio (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 030

Auswil has an area of . Of this area, or 82.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 11.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.9% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 48.2% is used for growing crops and 30.8% is pastures, while 3.7% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality consists of the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of Oberauswil and Niederauswil, Aerbolligen, Hermandingen and Rohrbachberg.

Coat of arms

The

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. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

is ''Argent a Semi Bear rampant couped Sable langued Gules and on a Chief of the last five Mullets Or, three and two.''

Demographics

2012-03-17-Supra Argovio (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 022

2012-03-17-Supra Argovio (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 021

Auswil has a population () of . , 1.7% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of -11.4%. Migration accounted for -9.7%, while births and deaths accounted for -1.4%.
accessed 14-May-2012 Most of the population () speaks

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(501 or 99.2%) as their first language. , the population was 52.7% male and 47.3% female. The population was made up of 236 Swiss men (51.4% of the population) and 6 (1.3%) non-Swiss men. There were 215 Swiss women (46.8%) and 2 (0.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 204 or about 40.4% were born in Auswil and lived there in 2000. There were 220 or 43.6% who were born in the same canton, while 60 or 11.9% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 16 or 3.2% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 64.7% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 16.1%. , there were 228 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 241 married individuals, 28 widows or widowers and 8 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 47 households that consist of only one person and 26 households with five or more people. , a total of 184 apartments (91.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 6 apartments (3.0%) were seasonally occupied and 11 apartments (5.5%) were empty.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.94%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:790 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:399 text:"399" bar:1850 from:start till:726 text:"726" bar:1860 from:start till:706 text:"706" bar:1870 from:start till:786 text:"786" bar:1880 from:start till:694 text:"694" bar:1888 from:start till:691 text:"691" bar:1900 from:start till:559 text:"559" bar:1910 from:start till:554 text:"554" bar:1920 from:start till:548 text:"548" bar:1930 from:start till:524 text:"524" bar:1941 from:start till:507 text:"507" bar:1950 from:start till:487 text:"487" bar:1960 from:start till:491 text:"491" bar:1970 from:start till:471 text:"471" bar:1980 from:start till:407 text:"407" bar:1990 from:start till:469 text:"469" bar:2000 from:start till:505 text:"505"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 47.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (19.4%), the EDU Party (7.2%) and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

(6.5%). In the federal election, a total of 183 votes were cast, and the

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...

was 46.6%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Auswil had an unemployment rate of 1.13%. , there were a total of 157 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 86 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 33 businesses involved in this sector. 15 people were employed in the

secondary sector In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction. ...

and there were 4 businesses in this sector. 56 people were employed in the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, with 12 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 111

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit that indicates the workload of an employee, employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often used to me ...

jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 51, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 12 of which 3 or (25.0%) were in manufacturing and 9 (75.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 48. In the tertiary sector; 36 or 75.0% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in a hotel or restaurant, 3 or 6.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 4 or 8.3% were in education and 1 was in health care. , there were 34 workers who commuted into the municipality and 168 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.9 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 6.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 54.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 36 or 7.1% were

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

, while 424 or 84.0% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

. Of the rest of the population, there were 32 individuals (or about 6.34% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 12 (or about 2.38% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and 17 individuals (or about 3.37% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Auswil about 203 or (40.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 40 or (7.9%) have completed additional higher education (either

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

or a ''

Fachhochschule A ''Fachhochschule'' (; plural ''Fachhochschulen''), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts ...

''). Of the 40 who completed tertiary schooling, 57.5% were Swiss men, 30.0% were Swiss women. The Canton of Bern school system provides one year of non-obligatory

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

, 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 Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

. During the 2009-10 school year, there were a total of 13 students attending classes in Auswil. There were no kindergarten classes in the municipality. The municipality had one primary class and 13 students. , there were 5 students in Auswil who came from another municipality, while 30 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern Articles which contain graphical timelines