Wichtrach 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 Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the

canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

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

Wichtrach was created on 1 January 2004 by uniting the independent municipalities of Niederwichtrach and Oberwichtrach. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of Oberwichtrach was first mentioned in 1180. The two Wichtrach villages were first mentioned in 1180 as ''Wichtracho''.

Geography

Wichtrach has an area of . As of 2012, a total of or 63.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 22.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 13.1% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.9% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.2% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 During the same year, housing and buildings made up 6.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.4%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 49.9% is used for growing crops and 12.1% is pastures, while 1.5% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. On 1 January 2004 the former municipalities of Niederwichtrach and Oberwichtrach merged into the municipality of Wichtrach. On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Konolfingen, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Bern-Mittelland.

Demographics

Wichtrach has a population () of . , 5.4% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (2001-2011) the population has changed at a rate of 0%. Migration accounted for -0.6%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.5%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 8 May 2013 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 ...

(94.7%) as their first language,

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

is the second most common (0.5%) and Italian is the third (1.1%). , the population was 50.2% male and 49.8% female. The population was made up of 1,897 Swiss men (47.2% of the population) and 120 (3.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,903 Swiss women (47.4%) and 99 (2.5%) non-Swiss women.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 21.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 63.3% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 15.3%. , there were 488 households that consist of only one person and 76 households with five or more people. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0.2 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 2.78%.

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: auto height:500 barincrement:45 PlotArea = top:20 left:35 bottom:90 right:35 Legend = columns:3 left:20 top:70 columnwidth:160 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4200 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:700 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:140 start:0 Colors= id:NI value:yellowgreen legend:Niederwichtrach id:OB value:green legend:Oberwichtrach id:WI value:teal legend:Wichtrach PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:30 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1850 from: 0 till:706 text:"706" color:NI bar:1860 from: 0 till:675 text:"675" color:NI bar:1870 from: 0 till:685 text:"685" color:NI bar:1880 from: 0 till:622 text:"622" color:NI bar:1890 from: 0 till:642 text:"642" color:NI bar:1900 from: 0 till:720 text:"720" color:NI bar:1910 from: 0 till:732 text:"732" color:NI bar:1920 from: 0 till:807 text:"807" color:NI bar:1930 from: 0 till:761 text:"761" color:NI bar:1940 from: 0 till:745 text:"745" color:NI bar:1950 from: 0 till:769 text:"769" color:NI bar:1960 from: 0 till:710 text:"710" color:NI bar:1970 from: 0 till:799 text:"799" color:NI bar:1980 from: 0 till:858 text:"858" color:NI bar:1990 from: 0 till:1188 text:"1,188" color:NI bar:2000 from: 0 till:1322 text:"1,322" color:NI bar:2010 from: 0 till:4046 text:"4,046" color:WI bar:1850 from: 706 till:1268 text:"562" color:OB bar:1860 from: 675 till:1213 text:"538" color:OB bar:1870 from: 685 till:1185 text:"500" color:OB bar:1880 from: 622 till:1182 text:"560" color:OB bar:1890 from: 642 till:1157 text:"515" color:OB bar:1900 from: 720 till:1370 text:"650" color:OB bar:1910 from: 732 till:1500 text:"768" color:OB bar:1920 from: 807 till:1611 text:"804" color:OB bar:1930 from: 761 till:1555 text:"794" color:OB bar:1940 from: 745 till:1607 text:"862" color:OB bar:1950 from: 769 till:1664 text:"895" color:OB bar:1960 from: 710 till:1632 text:"922" color:OB bar:1970 from: 799 till:1921 text:"1,122" color:OB bar:1980 from: 858 till:2522 text:"1,664" color:OB bar:1990 from: 1188 till:3290 text:"2,102" color:OB bar:2000 from: 1322 till:3699 text:"2,377" color:OB

Politics

In the 2015 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 36.8% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (14.5%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (13.8%) and the

FDP.The Liberals french: PLR.Les Libéraux-Radicaux it, PLR.I Liberali Radicali rm, PLD.Ils Liberals , logo = , caption = Logo of the party in French, German, and Italian , leader1_title = President , leader1_name = Thierry Burkart ...

(9.6%). In the federal election, a total of 1,508 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 48.0%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2015 Election
accessed 22 March 2016

Economy

, Wichtrach had an unemployment rate of 1.32%. , there were a total of 967 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 120 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 46 businesses involved in this sector. 291 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 41 businesses in this sector. 556 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 92 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 760

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 78, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 270 of which 127 or (47.0%) were in manufacturing and 143 (53.0%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 412. In the tertiary sector; 111 or 26.9% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 15 or 3.6% were in the movement and storage of goods, 42 or 10.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 5 or 1.2% were in the information industry, 38 or 9.2% were technical professionals or scientists, 71 or 17.2% were in education and 31 or 7.5% were in health care. Of the working population, 27.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 50.2% used a private car.

Religion

In 2000 about 78.2% of the population belonged to a Protestant church, 9.4% 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 ...

and 5.6% had no religious affiliation.

Education

In Wichtrach about 62.5% of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 18.9% 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 ...

''). 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 ...

. During the 2010-11 school year, there were a total of 588 students attending classes in Wichtrach. There were 4 kindergarten classes with a total of 78 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 6.4% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 9.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 13 primary classes and 258 students. Of the primary students, 6.2% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 7.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. During the same year, there were 12 lower secondary classes with a total of 252 students. There were 3.2% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 4.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Bern