Willadingen

Willadingen is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

History

Willadingen is first mentioned in 1214 as ''Willedingen''.

The oldest evidence of humans in the municipal area are some neolithic flints in the Neumatt area, followed by a grave or a graveyard in Wigglismoos. The small community has always been politically, economically and religiously dependent on Koppigen. Today it is part of the Koppigen school district and parish. The close connection to Koppigen probably came about under Peter of Thorberg who bought land in the village from Ulrich of Urtinen in 1374. After his death in 1397, the Thorberg Charterhouse, which he had helped found, inherited all of his land. After the city of Bern accepted the Protestant Reformation and secularized the Chapterhouse in 1528, Bern acquired the village. Under Bernese rule Willadingen became part of the district of Koppigen.

The rural village has remained mostly agricultural with very little industry. In 2000, almost three-quarters of the working population commuted to jobs in nearby cities.

Geography

Willadingen has an area of . Of this area, or 68.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 28.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.6% is settled (buildings or roads).Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 4.2% and transportation infrastructure made up 0.5%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 51.9% is used for growing crops and 16.7% is pastures.

The municipality is located along the Ösch river, on the border with the Canton of Solothurn. It consists of the village of Willadingen, the hamlets of Mösli and Moosgasse and the new housing development of Lischmatt.

On 31 December 2009 Amtsbezirk Burgdorf, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Emmental.Nomenklaturen – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis der Schweiz
accessed 4 April 2011

Coat of arms

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is ''Argent a Bull Sable horned and hoofed Or.''

Demographics

Willadingen has a population () of . , 1.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Statistical office of the Canton of Bern
accessed 4 January 2012 Over the last 10 years (2000-2010) the population has changed at a rate of 11.3%. Migration accounted for 15.3%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.6%.
accessed 24-September-2012

Most of the population () speaks German (169 or 98.8%) as their first language. There is one English speaker and one Portuguese speaker.

, the population was 50.5% male and 49.5% female. The population was made up of 99 Swiss men (50.5% of the population) and (0.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 95 Swiss women (48.5%) and 2 (1.0%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 60 or about 35.1% were born in Willadingen and lived there in 2000. There were 81 or 47.4% who were born in the same canton, while 25 or 14.6% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 5 or 2.9% were born outside of Switzerland.

, children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 18.9% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 62.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 18.9%.

, there were 67 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 79 married individuals, 13 widows or widowers and 12 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011

, there were 19 households that consist of only one person and 3 households with five or more people. , a total of 72 apartments (88.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 5 apartments (6.2%) were seasonally occupied and 4 apartments (4.9%) 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 5.1 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.08%.

The historical population is given in the following chart:

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bar:1764 from:start till:77 text:"77"
bar:1850 from:start till:141 text:"141"
bar:1860 from:start till:158 text:"158"
bar:1870 from:start till:195 text:"195"
bar:1880 from:start till:181 text:"181"
bar:1888 from:start till:207 text:"207"
bar:1900 from:start till:198 text:"198"
bar:1910 from:start till:222 text:"222"
bar:1920 from:start till:258 text:"258"
bar:1930 from:start till:245 text:"245"
bar:1941 from:start till:196 text:"196"
bar:1950 from:start till:246 text:"246"
bar:1960 from:start till:227 text:"227"
bar:1970 from:start till:186 text:"186"
bar:1980 from:start till:187 text:"187"
bar:1990 from:start till:180 text:"180"
bar:2000 from:start till:171 text:"171"

Sights

The entire village of Willadingen is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 45% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (21.1%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (11.6%) and the Green Liberal Party (GLP) (5.9%). In the federal election, a total of 98 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 59.8%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Willadingen had an unemployment rate of 1.1%. , there were a total of 38 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 22 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 9 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 3 businesses in this sector. 7 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 2 businesses in this sector.

there were a total of 28 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 15, all in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 8 of which 1 was in manufacturing and 7 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 5. In the tertiary sector; 1 was in trade, sale or the repair of motor vehicles and 4 were in a hotel or restaurant.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
accessed 28 January 2011

, there were 10 workers who commuted into the municipality and 76 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 7.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 5.8% used public transportation to get to work, and 59.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 9 or 5.3% were Roman Catholic, while 153 or 89.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. 8 (or about 4.68% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 1 individuals (or about 0.58% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Willadingen about 65 or (38.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 35 or (20.5%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a ''Fachhochschule''). Of the 35 who completed tertiary schooling, 71.4% were Swiss men, 28.6% were Swiss women.

During the 2010-11 school year, there were no students attending school in Willadingen.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012

, there were 19 students from Willadingen who attended schools outside the municipality.

References

{{Authority control

Municipalities of the canton of Bern