Bilten is a former

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 canton of

Glarus , neighboring_municipalities= Glarus Nord, Glarus Süd, Muotathal (SZ), Innerthal (SZ) , twintowns= Wiesbaden-Biebrich (Germany) } Glarus (; gsw, Glaris; french: Glaris; it, Glarona; rm, Glaruna) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in S ...

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 ...

. Effective from 1 January 2011, Bilten is part of the municipality of

Glarus Nord Glarus Nord is one of three municipalities of the canton of Glarus, Switzerland (the others being Glarus and Glarus Süd). Effective from 1 January 2011, Glarus Nord incorporates the former municipalities of Bilten, Filzbach, Mollis, Mühle ...

History

Bilten is first mentioned in 1050 as ''Billitun''.

Geography

Bilten has an area, , of . Of this area, 37.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while 50.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 8.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (3.8%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). Bilten was the most northerly municipality in the canton and is located on the southern end of the

Linth The Linth (pronounced "lint") is a Swiss river that rises near the village of Linthal in the mountains of the canton of Glarus, and eventually flows into the Obersee section of Lake Zurich. It is about in length. The water power of the Linth ...

river. It consists of the

linear village Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...

of Bilten, with the village sections of Ober-, Unterbilten and Rufi, and the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Ussbühl which is located on the border with the

Canton of Schwyz The canton of Schwyz (german: Kanton Schwyz rm, Chantun Sviz; french: Canton de Schwytz; it, Canton Svitto) is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred on ...

Demographics

Bilten had a population (as of 2010) of 2,001. , 28.9% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.Canton Glarus population growth
accessed 9 September 2009 Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 6.7%. Most of the population () speaks German (79.4%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 5.5%) and Italian being third ( 3.9%).
accessed 10-Sep-2009 In the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...

the most popular party was the SVP which received 47.2% of the vote. Most of the rest of the votes went to the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

with 43.7% of the vote. In Bilten about 54.9% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University 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 ...

''). Bilten has an unemployment rate of 1.66%. , there were 66 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 26 businesses involved in this sector. 509 people are 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 are 30 businesses in this sector. 241 people are 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 49 businesses in this sector. The historical population is given in the following table:

Transportation

The municipality is located on the A3 motorway.

Bilten railway station Bilten railway station is a railway station in the Swiss canton of Glarus and municipality of Glarus Nord. The station is located on the Lake Zurich left-bank railway line, owned by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), and takes its name from t ...

is a stop of the Zurich S-Bahn service S2. It is the penultimate stop on the S2 line southbound before Ziegelbrücke where the train terminates. In the other direction, the S2 heads towards Zürich Hauptbahnhof, Zürich Flughafen and finally Effretikon.

References

External links

Official website of Bilten
* {{Authority control Former municipalities of the canton of Glarus