Oberdorf is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the district of
Waldenburg in the
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative divisions
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and entertainment
* Canton (band), an It ...
of
Basel-Landschaft
Canton of Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country, informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet (; ; ; ; ), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital city is Liestal. It is traditional ...
in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
History
Oberdorf is first mentioned in 835 as ''Honoltesuuilare''. In 1345-89 it was mentioned as ''Onoltzwil in dem obern
..dorff'' and in 1491 it was mentioned as ''Oberdorf''. Like
Niederdorf it was part of the village of Onoldswil, until that village was dissolved in the 13th Century.
[
]
Geography
Oberdorf has an area, , of . Of this area, or 43.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 43.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 12.8% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.5% 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 7.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.3%. Out of the forested land, 42.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.2% is used for growing crops and 25.5% is pastures, while 5.7% is used for orchards or vine crops and 2.1% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
The municipality is located in the Waldenburg district, in the Waldenburger Valley or Vorderen Frenken Valley on the old road over the Oberen Hauenstein Pass. It consists of the village of Oberdorf and 13 scattered farming settlements, which were all founded since the 19th Century.
]
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 an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...
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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...
is ''Per bend sinistre Argent and Azure, overall a Key sinister palewise counterchanged.''
Demographics
Oberdorf has a population () of . , 19.7% 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 (1997–2007) the population has changed at a rate of -2.2%.
accessed 11 March 2011German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
(2,058 or 88.7%), with Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
being second most common (99 or 4.3%) 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 (53 or 2.3%). There are 14 people who speak French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
and 5 people who speak Romansh.[
, the gender distribution of the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 1,825 Swiss citizens (80.1% of the population), and 452 non-Swiss residents (19.9%)][ Of the population in the municipality 584 or about 25.2% were born in Oberdorf and lived there in 2000. There were 710 or 30.6% who were born in the same canton, while 561 or 24.2% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 411 or 17.7% were born outside of Switzerland.][
In there were 11 live births to Swiss citizens and 6 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 13 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 2 while the foreign population increased by 5. There were 3 Swiss men who emigrated from Switzerland and 2 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 6 non-Swiss men and 5 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 a decrease of 21 and the non-Swiss population increased by 19 people. This represents a ]population growth rate
Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...
of -0.1%.[
The age distribution, , in Oberdorf is; 129 children or 5.7% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 391 teenagers or 17.2% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 291 people or 12.8% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 243 people or 10.7% are between 30 and 39, 368 people or 16.2% are between 40 and 49, and 464 people or 20.4% are between 50 and 64. The senior population distribution is 291 people or 12.8% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 100 people or 4.4% who are over 80.][Canton of Basel-Land Statistics]
''Wohnbevölkerung nach Nationalität und Konfession per 30. September 2010'' accessed 16 February 2011
, there were 939 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,172 married individuals, 129 widows or widowers and 79 individuals who are divorced.[STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 887 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household.[ There were 216 households that consist of only one person and 92 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 906 households that answered this question, 23.8% were households made up of just one person and 11 were adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 299 married couples without children, 301 married couples with children There were 51 single parents with a child or children. There were 9 households that were made up unrelated people and 19 households that were made some sort of institution or another collective housing.][
there were 432 single family homes (or 69.5% of the total) out of a total of 622 inhabited buildings. There were 89 multi-family buildings (14.3%), along with 67 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (10.8%) and 34 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (5.5%). Of the single family homes 33 were built before 1919, while 80 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (85) were built between 1946 and 1960.][Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
there were 996 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 289. There were 60 single room apartments and 390 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 876 apartments (88.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 85 apartments (8.5%) were seasonally occupied and 35 apartments (3.5%) were empty.[ , the construction rate of new housing units was 0.9 new units per 1000 residents.][ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.86%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 35.21% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SP (24.54%), the FDP (14.11%) and the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
(13.67%). In the federal election, a total of 760 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 is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
was 50.8%.
Economy
, Oberdorf had an unemployment rate of 3.8%. , there were 39 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 13 businesses involved in this sector. 746 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 28 businesses in this sector. 412 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 ...
, with 78 businesses in this sector.[ There were 1,197 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 43.1% of the workforce.
the total number of ]full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...
jobs was 1,026. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 24, of which19 were in agriculture and 5 were in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 700 of which 647 or (92.4%) were in manufacturing and 53 (7.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 302. In the tertiary sector; 94 or 31.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 14 or 4.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 21 or 7.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 21 or 7.0% were in the information industry, 15 or 5.0% were the insurance or financial industry, 33 or 10.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 55 or 18.2% were in education and 17 or 5.6% were in health care.
, there were 718 workers who commuted into the municipality and 797 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 4.0% of the workforce coming into Oberdorf are coming from outside Switzerland.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 23.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 44.5% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 542 or 23.4% were Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
, while 1,261 or 54.4% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church
The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), formerly named Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches until 31 December 2019, is a federation of 25 member churches – 24 cantonal churches and the Evangelical-Methodist Church of Switzerland. The P ...
. Of the rest of the population, there were 28 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.21% of the population), there were 17 individuals (or about 0.73% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 72 individuals (or about 3.10% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
, and 153 (or about 6.60% of the population) who were Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic. There were 2 individuals who were Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
, 3 individuals who were Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
and 1 individual who belonged to another church. 184 (or about 7.93% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to ...
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 55 individuals (or about 2.37% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Oberdorf about 863 or (37.2%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education
Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education.
Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
, and 228 or (9.8%) have completed additional higher education (either university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
or a ''Fachhochschule
A (; plural ), abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a Hochschule, German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, te ...
''). Of the 228 who completed tertiary schooling, 70.6% were Swiss men, 19.3% were Swiss women, 5.7% were non-Swiss men and 4.4% were non-Swiss women.[
, there were 299 students in Oberdorf who came from another municipality, while 69 residents attended schools outside the municipality.][
]
Transport
Oberdorf is served by the Waldenburg narrow gauge railway, which operates a quarter-hourly train service to Liestal
Liestal (, Standard ), formerly spelled Liesthal, is the capital of Liestal District and the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland, south of Basel.
Liestal is an industrial town with a Cobbled street, cobbled-street ...
. At Liestal railway station, onward connection is made with the Swiss Federal Railway
Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland.
The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a government institution, but since 1999 it has been a special stock corpo ...
's services to Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
, Bern
Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
, Lucerne
Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...
and Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
.
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Municipalities of Basel-Landschaft