Jens 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
Seeland administrative district in the
canton of
Bern in
Switzerland.
History
Jens is first mentioned in 1229-30 as ''Gens''. In 1335 it was mentioned as ''Jensse''.
[
The village was originally part of the '' Herrschaft'' of Nidau. In 1335, the owner of the ''Herrschaft'', the Knight Ulrich von Sutz, sold his land to the Counts of Neuchâtel-Nidau. The Counts held the land until 1398 when it was acquired by the city of Bern. Under Bernese rule Jens became part of the Bailiwick of Nidau. Jens and Worben formed a court in the Bailiwick and it was part of the ]parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...
of Bürglen. During the Jura water correction projects of 1868-91, a canal was built in Jens and the nearby marsh was drained. The majority of the new farmland was planted with sugar beets for the sugar beet factory in Aarberg
Aarberg is a historic town and a municipality in the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.
Aarberg lies 20 kilometers from Bern above the river Aare. With an area of , Aarberg borders Bargen, Kappelen, Lyss, Rad ...
. As the population grew, the housing developments of Tannacker and Weieried were built in the late 1970s. Today about two-thirds of the workers commute to jobs outside the municipality.[
]
Geography
Jens has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 69.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 22.9% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 7.4% 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
During the same year, housing and buildings made up 4.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 20.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.8% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 58.3% is used for growing crops and 10.0% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
The municipality is located on the southern slope of the Jensberg.
On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Nidau, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Seeland.]
accessed 4 April 2011
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 vi ...
of the municipal coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
is ''Gules a Rose Argent barbed and seeded proper and a Bar of the second.''
Demographics
Jens has a population () of . , 3.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of -1.2%. Migration accounted for -0.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.3%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
accessed 9 August 2013
Most of the population () speaks German (585 or 96.1%) as their first language, French is the second most common (13 or 2.1%) and English is the third (4 or 0.7%). There is 1 person who speaks 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 ...
and 1 person who speaks Romansh.[
, the population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The population was made up of 329 Swiss men (48.7% of the population) and 10 (1.5%) non-Swiss men. There were 326 Swiss women (48.3%) and 1 (0.1%) non-Swiss women.][Statistical office of the Canton of Bern]
accessed 4 January 2012 Of the population in the municipality, 199 or about 32.7% were born in Jens and lived there in 2000. There were 261 or 42.9% who were born in the same canton, while 105 or 17.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 26 or 4.3% were born outside of Switzerland.[
, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 60.6% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 17.5%.][
, there were 229 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 337 married individuals, 29 widows or widowers and 14 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 52 households that consist of only one person and 22 households with five or more people. , a total of 226 apartments (91.5% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 15 apartments (6.1%) were seasonally occupied and 6 apartments (2.4%) were empty.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011 , the construction rate of new housing units was 3 new units per 1000 residents.[ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.06%. In 2011, single family homes made up 68.6% of the total housing in the municipality.
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 30.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (20.6%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (19.6%) and the Green Party (6.4%). In the federal election, a total of 307 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 Univ ...
was 58.3%.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election]
accessed 8 May 2012
Economy
, Jens had an unemployment rate of 0.82%. , there were a total of 97 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 43 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 15 businesses involved in this sector. 24 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 constructi ...
and there were 5 businesses in this sector. 30 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 329 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.8% of the workforce.
there were a total of 71 ]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 25, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 23 of which 12 or (52.2%) were in manufacturing and 10 (43.5%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 23. In the tertiary sector; 7 or 30.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 3 or 13.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 2 or 8.7% were the insurance or financial industry, 1 was a technical professional or scientist, 4 or 17.4% were in education.
, there were 24 workers who commuted into the municipality and 245 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 10.2 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. A total of 84 workers (77.8% of the 108 total workers in the municipality) both lived and worked in Jens.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 11.2% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.9% used a private car.[
In 2011 the average local and cantonal tax rate on a married resident, with two children, of Jens making 150,000 CHF was 12.9%, while an unmarried resident's rate was 19%. For comparison, the rate for the entire canton in the same year, was 14.2% and 22.0%, while the nationwide rate was 12.3% and 21.1% respectively. In 2009 there were a total of 285 tax payers in the municipality. Of that total, 126 made over 75,000 CHF per year. There were 5 people who made between 15,000 and 20,000 per year. The average income of the over 75,000 CHF group in Jens was 120,112 CHF, while the average across all of Switzerland was 130,478 CHF.
In 2011 a total of 0.9% of the population received direct financial assistance from the government.
]
Religion
From the , 457 or 75.0% 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 ...
, while 55 or 9.0% 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 ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 4 individuals (or about 0.66% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 16 individuals (or about 2.63% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 5 (or about 0.82% 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 4 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 ...
and 1 person who was 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 ...
. 51 (or about 8.37% 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 16 individuals (or about 2.63% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Jens about 57.7% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 25.1% 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 101 who had completed some form of tertiary schooling listed in the census, 81.2% were Swiss men, 18.8% 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 ...
.[Schuljahr 2011/12 pdf document]
accessed 9 May 2013
, there were a total of 48 students living in and attending any school in the municipality. 45 students from Jens attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Bern