Sempach 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

Sursee Sursee is a municipality in the district of Sursee in the canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. Sursee is located at the northern end of Lake Sempach, not far from where the ''Sure'' (or ''Suhre'') river exits the lake ("See"), hence the name "Sursee". ...

in the canton of

Lucerne Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

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

It has retained some traces of its medieval appearance, especially the main gateway, beneath a watch tower, and reached by a bridge over the old moat. About half an hour distant to the north-east, on the hillside, is the site of the famous

Battle of Sempach The Battle of Sempach was fought on 9 July 1386, between Leopold III, Duke of Austria and the Old Swiss Confederacy. The battle was a decisive Swiss victory in which Duke Leopold and numerous Austrian nobles died. The victory helped turn the lo ...

(9 July 1386), in which the Swiss defeated the Austrians, whose leader, Duke Leopold, lost his life. The legendary deed of

Arnold of Winkelried Arnold von Winkelried or Arnold Winkelried is a legendary hero of Swiss history. According to 16th-century Swiss historiography, Winkelried's sacrifice brought about the victory of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Battle of Sempach (1386) over the ...

is associated with this victory. The spot is now marked by an ancient and picturesque Battle Chapel (restored in 1886) and by a modern monument to Winkelried. A few years later, in 1393, the so-called '' Sempacherbrief'' was signed between the '' Acht Orte'' (the original eight Swiss cantons), plus the associated

Canton of Solothurn The canton of Solothurn or canton of Soleure (german: Kanton Solothurn rm, Chantun Soloturn french: Canton de Soleure; it, Canton Soletta) is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the northwest of Switzerland. The capital is Solothurn. Hi ...

. It was the first document signed by all eight (plus Solothurn), but it also defined that none of them was to unilaterally start a war without the consent of all the others. Some miles north of Sempach is the quaint village of

Beromünster Beromünster is a municipality in the district of Sursee in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. On 1 January 2004 the former municipality of Schwarzenbach merged into the municipality of Beromünster.Gering who introduced printing into France. Sempach is the site of the

Sempach Bird Observatory The Swiss Ornithological Institute () is a non-profit foundation headquartered in Sempach in the district of Sursee in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland dedicated to the study and conservation of birds. The Swiss Ornithological Institute wa ...

Geography

Sempach has an area, (as of the 2004/09 survey) of . Of this area, about 63.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 14.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 20.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and 1.3% is unproductive land. Over the past two decades (1979/85-2004/09) the amount of land that is settled has increased by and the agricultural land has decreased by .Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Regional portraits
accessed 27 October 2016 , 14.53% of the total land area was forested. Of the agricultural land, 63.8% is used for farming or pastures, while 4.92% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the settled areas, 6.37% is covered with buildings, 0.89% is industrial, 0.22% is classed as special developments, 1.23% is parks or greenbelts and 7.6% is transportation infrastructure. Of the unproductive areas, 0.34% is unproductive standing water (ponds or lakes), and 0.11% is other unproductive land.
accessed 12 August 2009 It is built above the eastern shore of

Lake Sempach __NOTOC__ Lake Sempach (German: ''Sempachersee'') is a lake in the canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. Its area is about and its maximum depth is . A island named ''Gamma Insel'' is located east of Sursee. In the 17th century the lake counted with ...

, and about by road north of the Sempach railway station ( N.W. of

) on the main line between

and

Olten Olten (High Alemannic: ''Oute'') is a town in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland and capital of the district of the same name. Olten's railway station is within 30 minutes of Zürich, Basel, Bern, and Lucerne by train, and is a rail hub o ...

. Steinibühlweiher is located above the town.

Demographics

Sempach has a population () of . , 7.9% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 4 years (2010-2014) the population has changed at a rate of 3.52%. The

birth rate The birth rate for a given period is the total number of live human births per 1,000 population divided by the length of the period in years. The number of live births is normally taken from a universal registration system for births; populati ...

in the municipality, in 2014, was 12.3, while the

death rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of de ...

was 5.0 per thousand residents. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 24.6% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) are 61.0% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.4%. In 2015 there were 1,896 single residents, 1,904 people who were married or in a civil partnership, 149 widows or widowers and 210 divorced residents. In 2014 there were 1,598 private households in Sempach with an average household size of 2.58persons. Of the 635 inhabited buildings in the municipality, in 2000, about 58.0% were single family homes and 18.3% were multiple family buildings. Additionally, about 14.0% of the buildings were built before 1919, while 21.4% were built between 1991 and 2000.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Thema 09 - Bau- und Wohnungswesen
accessed 5 May 2016 In 2013 the rate of construction of new housing units per 1000 residents was 5.78. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.64%. there were 615 inhabited buildings in the municipality, of which 474 were built only as housing, and 141 were

mixed use Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to som ...

buildings. There were 358 single family homes, 44 double family homes, and 72 multi-family homes in the municipality. Most homes were either two (248) or three (163) story structures. There were only 16 single story buildings and 47 four or more story buildings. Most of the population () speaks German (93.8%), with Albanian being second most common (2.2%) and Spanish being third (0.7%).

Historic population

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1100 height:500 PlotArea = height:350 left:100 bottom:90 right:100 Legend = columns:3 left:220 top:70 columnwidth:160 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:3500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:600 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:120 start:0 Colors= id:SE value:yellowgreen legend:Sempach PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:30 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from: 0 till:1086 text:"1086" color:SE bar:1860 from: 0 till:1084 text:"1084" color:SE bar:1870 from: 0 till:1109 text:"1109" color:SE bar:1880 from: 0 till:1171 text:"1171" color:SE bar:1888 from: 0 till:1092 text:"1092" color:SE bar:1900 from: 0 till:1028 text:"1028" color:SE bar:1910 from: 0 till:1145 text:"1145" color:SE bar:1920 from: 0 till:1180 text:"1180" color:SE bar:1930 from: 0 till:1248 text:"1248" color:SE bar:1941 from: 0 till:1229 text:"1229" color:SE bar:1950 from: 0 till:1308 text:"1308" color:SE bar:1960 from: 0 till:1345 text:"1345" color:SE bar:1970 from: 0 till:1619 text:"1619" color:SE bar:1980 from: 0 till:2237 text:"2237" color:SE bar:1990 from: 0 till:3096 text:"3096" color:SE bar:2000 from: 0 till:3483 text:"3483" color:SE

Economy

, there were a total of 1,878 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 137 people worked in 32 businesses in the primary economic sector. 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 ...

employed 650 workers in 55 separate businesses. Finally, 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 ...

provided 1,091 jobs in 238 businesses. In 2014 a total of 5.8% of the population received social assistance.

Politics

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the CVP with 30.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (20.9%), the FDP (20.5%) and the SP (11.3%). In the federal election, a total of 1,800 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 60.7%.

Crime

In 2014 the crime rate, of the over 200 crimes listed in the

Swiss Criminal Code , french: Code pénal suisse (CP), it, Codice penale svizzero (CP), rm, Cudesch penal svizzer , citation = , territorial_extent = Switzerland , enacted_by = Federal Assembly of Switzerland , date_enacted = 20 Decemb ...

(running from murder, robbery and assault to accepting bribes and election fraud), in Sempach was 42.4 per thousand residents. This rate is only 73.5% of the cantonal rate and 65.6% of the average rate in the entire country. During the same period, the rate of drug crimes was 3.1 per thousand residents, which is about one-third the national rate. The rate of violations of immigration, visa and work permit laws was 0.5 per thousand residents, or about 10% of the national rate.Statistical Atlas of Switzerland
accessed 5 April 2016

Education

In Sempach about 81.3% 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 ...

'').

Religion

the religious membership of Sempach was as follows: 2,678 (76.9%) were Roman Catholic and 485 (13.9%) were Protestant, with an additional 22 (0.63%) that were of some other Christian faith. There were 86 individuals (2.47% of the population) who are Muslim. Of the rest, there were 15 (0.43%) individuals who belonged to another religion (not listed), 123 (3.53%) who did not belong to any organized religion, and 74 (2.12%) who did not answer the question.

Weather

Sempach has an average of 133.9 days of rain per year and on average receives of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

. The wettest month is June during which time Sempach receives an average of of precipitation. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 13.2 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is May, with an average of 13.6, but with only of precipitation. The driest month of the year is October with an average of of precipitation over 13.2 days., the weather station elevation is 510 meters above sea level.

References

* **See Th. von Liebenau. ''Die Schlacht bei Sempach'' (Lucerne, 1886).

External links

*http://www.sempach.ch * Statistical data is available from https://web.archive.org/web/20040823004448/http://www.lu.ch/download/fd/afs/pdf/jbkt/profile/gp_1102.pdf {{Authority control Cities in Switzerland Municipalities of the canton of Lucerne