Feldbrunnen-St.Niklaus 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 Lebern 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 ...

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

Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus is first mentioned in 1319 as ''Velbrunnen''.

Geography

Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus has an area, , of . Of this area, or 36.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 46.0% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 14.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 2.0% 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 8.4% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.0%. Out of the forested land, 44.4% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 26.0% is used for growing crops and 10.4% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Lebern district, in the southern foothills of the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Frenc ...

, east of

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 ''Vert a Fontain natural Argent and in a Chief Azure a castle Argent roofed Gules.''

Demographics

Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus has a population () of . , 7.2% 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 18.6%.
accessed 30-March-2011 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 ...

(728 or 96.3%), 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 (8 or 1.1%) and French being third (6 or 0.8%). , the gender distribution of the population was 48.6% male and 51.4% female. The population was made up of 420 Swiss men (45.5% of the population) and 29 (3.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 441 Swiss women (47.8%) and 33 (3.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 124 or about 16.4% were born in Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus and lived there in 2000. There were 322 or 42.6% who were born in the same canton, while 231 or 30.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 65 or 8.6% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 7 live births to Swiss citizens and were 6 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There was 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there was 1 non-Swiss man and 1 non-Swiss woman 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 28 and the non-Swiss population increased by 5 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 3.7%. , there were 252 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 407 married individuals, 64 widows or widowers and 33 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 340 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 109 households that consist of only one person and 18 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 344 households that answered this question, 31.7% were households made up of just one person and there were 1 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 123 married couples without children, 86 married couples with children There were 12 single parents with a child or children. There were 9 households that were made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 129 single family homes (or 65.5% of the total) out of a total of 197 inhabited buildings. There were 47 multi-family buildings (23.9%), along with 16 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (8.1%) and 5 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.5%). Of the single family homes 8 were built before 1919, while 26 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (33) were built between 1971 and 1980.Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 there were 379 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 112. There were 6 single room apartments and 173 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 337 apartments (88.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 30 apartments (7.9%) were seasonally occupied and 12 apartments (3.2%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 5.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.92%. 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:760 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:1850 from:start till:232 text:"232" bar:1860 from:start till:233 text:"233" bar:1870 from:start till:213 text:"213" bar:1880 from:start till:221 text:"221" bar:1888 from:start till:233 text:"233" bar:1900 from:start till:275 text:"275" bar:1910 from:start till:278 text:"278" bar:1920 from:start till:337 text:"337" bar:1930 from:start till:373 text:"373" bar:1941 from:start till:396 text:"396" bar:1950 from:start till:404 text:"404" bar:1960 from:start till:528 text:"528" bar:1970 from:start till:565 text:"565" bar:1980 from:start till:701 text:"701" bar:1990 from:start till:640 text:"640" bar:2000 from:start till:756 text:"756"

Heritage sites of national significance

Waldegg Castle Waldegg Castle is a castle near Solothurn, but in the Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality of Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is a Swiss Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional si ...

is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire Waldegg/Feldbrunnnen-St.Niklau area is part of the

Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage. Sites of national importance Types The types are based on t ...

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 FDP which received 32.26% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (25.56%), the CVP (22.29%) and the SP (10.34%). In the federal election, a total of 473 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 67.5%.

Economy

, Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. , there were 9 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 3 businesses involved in this sector. 59 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 8 businesses in this sector. 127 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 38 businesses in this sector. There were 394 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.2% 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 149. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 6, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 55 of which 18 or (32.7%) were in manufacturing and 33 (60.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 88. In the tertiary sector; 9 or 10.2% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 1 was in the movement and storage of goods, 14 or 15.9% were in a hotel or restaurant, 11 or 12.5% were in the information industry, 2 or 2.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 23 or 26.1% were technical professionals or scientists and 3 or 3.4% were in health care.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011 , there were 89 workers who commuted into the municipality and 337 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 3.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 14.5% used public transportation to get to work, and 66% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 319 or 42.2% 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 262 or 34.7% 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 7 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.93% of the population), there were 8 individuals (or about 1.06% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 12 individuals (or about 1.59% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 4 (or about 0.53% 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. 132 (or about 17.46% 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 12 individuals (or about 1.59% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus about 322 or (42.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 175 or (23.1%) 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 175 who completed tertiary schooling, 78.3% were Swiss men, 20.0% were Swiss women. , there were 84 students from Feldbrunnen-St. Niklaus 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