Dorneck District is one of the ten districts of 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 ...

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 ...

, situated to the north of the canton. Together with

Thierstein District Thierstein District is one of the ten districts of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland, situated to the north of the canton. Together with the Dorneck District, it forms the ''Amtei'' (electoral district) of Dorneck-Thierstein. It has a popula ...

, it forms the ''Amtei'' (electoral district) of Dorneck-Thierstein. It has a population of (as of ). Five of the district's eleven municipalities are

exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

s, either within the canton of

Basel-Country Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet (; german: Kanton Basel-Landschaft ; rm, Chantun Basilea-Champagna; french: Canton de Bâle-Campagne; it, Canton Basilea Campagna), is one of the 26 cantons forming ...

or bordering

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Municipalities

Dorneck District contains the following municipalities: Karte Bezirk Dorneck 2007

Mergers and name changes

On 1 January 1986 the municipality of Hofstetten (SO) changed its name to Hofstetten-Flüh.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011

Geography

Dorneck has an area, , of . Of this area, or 44.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 44.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 11.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% is unproductive land.
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 7.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.9%. Out of the forested land, 41.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.3% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 37.8% is used for growing crops, while 6.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the district is flowing water.

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 two Fish-hooks inverted and addorsed Sable.''

Demographics

Dorneck has a population () of 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 ...

(16,601 or 92.3%), with

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

being second most common (245 or 1.4%) and French being third (234 or 1.3%). There are 9 people who speak Romansh. , the gender distribution of the population was 48.7% male and 51.3% female. The population was made up of 7,911 Swiss men (40.5% of the population) and 1,603 (8.2%) non-Swiss men. There were 8,446 Swiss women (43.3%) and 1,568 (8.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the district 4,863 or about 27.0% were born in Dorneck and lived there in 2000. There were 1,178 or 6.6% who were born in the same canton, while 8,211 or 45.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 3,171 or 17.6% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 138 live births to Swiss citizens and 22 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 102 deaths of Swiss citizens and 7 non-Swiss citizen deaths. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 36 while the foreign population increased by 15. There were 5 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland and 15 Swiss women who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 73 non-Swiss men and 29 non-Swiss women who immigrated from another country to Switzerland. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 21 and the non-Swiss population increased by 99 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 0.6%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Superweb database - Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
accessed 19 June 2010 , there were 7,349 people who were single and never married in the district. There were 8,940 married individuals, 801 widows or widowers and 888 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 There were 2,056 households that consist of only one person and 538 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 7,429 households that answered this question, 27.7% were households made up of just one person and 47 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 2,251 married couples without children, 2,412 married couples with children There were 394 single parents with a child or children. There were 105 households that were made up unrelated people and 164 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:960 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:18000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:4000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:800 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from:start till:6265 text:"6,265" bar:1860 from:start till:6424 text:"6,424" bar:1870 from:start till:6650 text:"6,650" bar:1880 from:start till:6513 text:"6,513" bar:1888 from:start till:6411 text:"6,411" bar:1900 from:start till:6788 text:"6,788" bar:1910 from:start till:7362 text:"7,362" bar:1920 from:start till:7768 text:"7,768" bar:1930 from:start till:8528 text:"8,528" bar:1941 from:start till:8516 text:"8,516" bar:1950 from:start till:9299 text:"9,299" bar:1960 from:start till:10035 text:"10,035" bar:1970 from:start till:11805 text:"11,805" bar:1980 from:start till:13309 text:"13,309" bar:1990 from:start till:15701 text:"15,701" bar:2000 from:start till:17978 text:"17,978"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 24.07% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (21.61%), the CVP (18.43%) and the FDP (17.18%). In the federal election, a total of 6,941 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 52.9%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office, ''Nationalratswahlen 2007: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung, nach Gemeinden/Bezirk/Canton''
accessed 28 May 2010

Religion

From the , 7,644 or 42.5% 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 4,510 or 25.1% 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 103 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.57% of the population), there were 65 individuals (or about 0.36% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 654 individuals (or about 3.64% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 4 individuals (or about 0.02% of the population) who were

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and 276 (or about 1.54% 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 37 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, 73 individuals who were

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and 21 individuals who belonged to another church. 3,968 (or about 22.07% 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 623 individuals (or about 3.47% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Dorneck about 7,098 or (39.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 3,166 or (17.6%) 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 3,166 who completed tertiary schooling, 55.7% were Swiss men, 24.4% were Swiss women, 10.7% were non-Swiss men and 9.3% were non-Swiss women.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorneck (District) Districts of the canton of Solothurn