Bolken 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 district of
Wasseramt in the
canton of
Solothurn
Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; rm, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the Capital (political), capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the n ...
in
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
Bolken is first mentioned in 1429 as ''ze Bollikon''.
[
]
Geography
Bolken has an area, , of . Of this area, or 64.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 21.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 12.3% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.9% 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 6.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 5.7%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 55.2% is used for growing crops and 8.5% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is in lakes.[
The municipality is located in the Wasseramt district, on the ]moraine
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...
landscape left behind by the Rhone glacier. It lies on the border with the Canton of Bern
The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...
and consists of the ''haufendorf'' village (an irregular, unplanned and quite closely packed village, built around a central square) of Bolken and the Inkwilersee
Inkwilersee is a small lake on the border of the municipalities of Inkwil, Canton of Berne, and Bolken, Canton of Solothurn, Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are inst ...
(Inkwiler lake).
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 ''Gules a Ploughshare Argent between two Mullets of Five of the last in chief.''
Demographics
Bolken has a population () of . , 4.5% of the population are resident foreign nationals.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008]
accessed 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 12%. It has changed at a rate of 3.7% due to migration and at a rate of 7.7% due to births and deaths.
accessed 13-April-2011German
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 ...
(465 or 95.1%), with French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
being second most common (9 or 1.8%) and Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
being third (6 or 1.2%).[
, the gender distribution of the population was 51.6% male and 48.4% female. The population was made up of 264 Swiss men (49.0% of the population) and 14 (2.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 253 Swiss women (46.9%) and 8 (1.5%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 139 or about 28.4% were born in Bolken and lived there in 2000. There were 138 or 28.2% who were born in the same canton, while 163 or 33.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 34 or 7.0% were born outside of Switzerland.][
In there were 4 live births to Swiss citizens and were 3 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There . At the same time, there was 1 non-Swiss man and 3 non-Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 4 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 10 people. This represents a ]population growth rate
Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...
of -1.1%.[
The age distribution, , in Bolken is; 52 children or 10.6% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 92 teenagers or 18.8% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 21 people or 4.3% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 180 people or 36.8% are between 25 and 44, and 102 people or 20.9% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 38 people or 7.8% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 4 people or 0.8% who are over 80.
, there were 200 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 246 married individuals, 18 widows or widowers and 25 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 183 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household.[ There were 47 households that consist of only one person and 14 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 184 households that answered this question, 25.5% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 44 married couples without children, 84 married couples with children There were 8 single parents with a child or children.][
there were 114 single family homes (or 76.5% of the total) out of a total of 149 inhabited buildings. There were 14 multi-family buildings (9.4%), along with 17 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (11.4%) and 4 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.7%). Of the single family homes 7 were built before 1919, while 39 were built between 1990 and 2000.][Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
there were 187 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 59. There were 3 single room apartments and 97 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 179 apartments (95.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 4 apartments (2.1%) were seasonally occupied and 4 apartments (2.1%) were empty.[ , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.6 new units per 1000 residents.][ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.93%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Heritage sites of national significance
It is home to one or more prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements that are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps
Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps are a series of prehistoric pile dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from about 5000 to 500 BC on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. In 2011, 111 sites located various ...
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.[UNESCO World Heritage Site - Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps]
/ref> The Inkwilersee, a paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
, neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
and Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
lake shore settlement, is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Politics
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 CVP which received 22.52% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.85%), the FDP (21.27%) and the SP (20.93%). In the federal election, a total of 173 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 46.5%.
Economy
, Bolken had an unemployment rate of 0.9%. , there were 21 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 5 businesses involved in this sector. 7 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 3 businesses in this sector. 14 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 4 businesses in this sector.[ There were 272 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.9% of the workforce.
the total number of ]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 was 25. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 10, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 6 of which 1 was in manufacturing and 5 (83.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 9. In the tertiary sector; 3 or 33.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 5 or 55.6% were in education.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 13 workers who commuted into the municipality and 234 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 18.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 16.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 65.8% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 147 or 30.1% 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 235 or 48.1% 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 3 individuals (or about 0.61% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 12 individuals (or about 2.45% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 (or about 1.02% of the population) who were Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic. There were 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 73 (or about 14.93% 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 ...
or 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 11 individuals (or about 2.25% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Bolken about 188 or (38.4%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 71 or (14.5%) 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 71 who completed tertiary schooling, 80.3% were Swiss men, 14.1% were Swiss women.[
, there were 35 students from Bolken who attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Solothurn
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Solothurn