Muhen 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

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...

of the canton of

Aargau Aargau, more formally the Canton of Aargau (german: Kanton Aargau; rm, Chantun Argovia; french: Canton d'Argovie; it, Canton Argovia), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capita ...

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

Muhen is first mentioned in 1045 as ''Mucheim'', though this comes from a 14th-century copy of the original. In 1267 it was mentioned as ''Mukhein''.

Geography

Muhen has an area, , of . Of this area, 42.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 42.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 15.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.1%) is non-productive (rivers or lakes). The municipality is located in the Aarau district in the lower Suhr valley. It consists of the formerly independent villages that have grown together; Ober-, Mittel- and Untermuhen as well as Schwabistal.

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 ''Azure above a base wavy with two barrulets wavy of the first a Bridge of the second masoned and in chief two Mullets of Five Or.''

Demographics

Muhen has a population (as of ) of . , 12.1% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bereich 01 -Bevölkerung
accessed 20 January 2010 Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 12.9%. Most of the population () speaks German (93.5%), with Italian being second most common ( 3.1%) and French being third ( 0.7%).
accessed 26-January-2010 The age distribution, , in Muhen is; 335 children or 9.6% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 438 teenagers or 12.6% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 431 people or 12.4% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 444 people or 12.7% are between 30 and 39, 573 people or 16.4% are between 40 and 49, and 534 people or 15.3% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 351 people or 10.1% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 241 people or 6.9% are between 70 and 79, there are 127 people or 3.6% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 15 people or 0.4% who are 90 and older.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau -Bevölkerungsdaten für den Kanton Aargau und die Gemeinden (Archiv)
accessed 20 January 2010 , there were 60 homes with 1 or 2 persons in the household, 522 homes with 3 or 4 persons in the household, and 557 homes with 5 or more persons in the household. The average number of people per household was 2.51 individuals. there were 766 single family homes (or 52.9% of the total) out of a total of 1,447 homes and apartments.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau
accessed 20 January 2010 In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 43.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (16.7%), the FDP (14%) and the CVP (7.4%). In Muhen about 75.1% 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 ...

''). Of the school age population (), there are 222 students attending

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, there are 115 students attending secondary school in the municipality. The historical population is given in the following table:

Heritage sites of national significance

Its 17th-century straw-

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate ch ...

with

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. ...

was listed as a 1995 heritage site of national significance. However, the farmhouse in no longer listed in the 2008 inventory.Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance
21.11.2008 version, accessed 26-Jan-2010

Economy

, Muhen had an unemployment rate of 1.15%. , there were 96 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 31 businesses involved in this sector. 282 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 constructi ...

and there are 36 businesses in this sector. 882 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 84 businesses in this sector. there were 1,556 total workers who lived in the municipality. Of these, 1,214 or about 78.0% of the residents worked outside Muhen while 418 people commuted into the municipality for work. There were a total of 760 jobs (of at least 6 hours per week) in the municipality.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau-Bereich 11 Verkehr und Nachrichtenwesen
accessed 21 January 2010

Religion

From the , 623 or 20.2% are

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 1,993 or 64.6% 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 are 7 individuals (or about 0.23% of the population) who belong to the Christian Catholic faith.Statistical Department of Canton Aargau - Aargauer Zahlen 2009
accessed 20 January 2010

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of Aargau