Rodersdorf 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 Dorneck in the canton of

Solothurn Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; rm, ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissens ...

in Switzerland, on the border to

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

History

Rodersdorf is first mentioned in 1226 as ''Ratolsdorf''. In 1349 it was mentioned as ''Roderstorff''.

Geography

Rodersdorf has an area, , of . Of this area, or 54.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 30.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 14.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.2% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 8.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.7%. while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 1.5%. Out of the forested land, 28.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 41.9% is used for growing crops and 9.9% is pastures, while 2.4% is used for orchards or vine crops. The municipality is located in the Dorneck district, in the upper Leimen valley. The municipality is located in an exclave of the Canton of Solothurn, bordered by

Basel-Country Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet (; german: Kanton Basel-Landschaft ; rm, Chantun Basilea-Champagna; french: Canton de Bâle-Campagne; it, Canton Basilea Campagna), is one of the 26 cantons forming ...

and

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 vi ...

of the municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

is ''Per pale Gules and Argent two Fishes embowed addorsed counterchanged.''

Demographics

Rodersdorf has a population () of . , 8.9% 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 (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -1.6%.
accessed 23-March-2011 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 **Ge ...

(1,229 or 96.1%), with French being second most common (16 or 1.3%) and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

being third (12 or 0.9%). There is 1 person who speaks Romansh. , the gender distribution of the population was 49.0% male and 51.0% female. The population was made up of 564 Swiss men (43.2% of the population) and 75 (5.7%) non-Swiss men. There were 603 Swiss women (46.2%) and 63 (4.8%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 300 or about 23.5% were born in Rodersdorf and lived there in 2000. There were 79 or 6.2% who were born in the same canton, while 682 or 53.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 178 or 13.9% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 7 live births to Swiss citizens and were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 2 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there was 1 non-Swiss man 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 8 and the non-Swiss population remained the same. This represents a

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

of -0.6%. The age distribution, , in Rodersdorf is; 110 children or 8.6% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 242 teenagers or 18.9% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 54 people or 4.2% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 321 people or 25.1% are between 25 and 44, and 434 people or 33.9% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 96 people or 7.5% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 22 people or 1.7% who are over 80. , there were 507 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 696 married individuals, 29 widows or widowers and 47 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 469 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.7 persons per household. There were 78 households that consist of only one person and 46 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 474 households that answered this question, 16.5% were households made up of just one person. Of the rest of the households, there are 158 married couples without children, 200 married couples with children There were 31 single parents with a child or children. There were 2 households that were made up of unrelated people and 5 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 333 single family homes (or 80.4% of the total) out of a total of 414 inhabited buildings. There were 27 multi-family buildings (6.5%), along with 44 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (10.6%) and 10 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.4%). Of the single family homes 32 were built before 1919, while 59 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (103) were built between 1971 and 1980.Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen
accessed 28 January 2011 there were 484 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 170. There were 4 single room apartments and 309 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 458 apartments (94.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 19 apartments (3.9%) were seasonally occupied and 7 apartments (1.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 1.6 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.58%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1020 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1300 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:300 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:60 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1798 from:start till:367 text:"367" bar:1850 from:start till:448 text:"448" bar:1860 from:start till:409 text:"409" bar:1870 from:start till:423 text:"423" bar:1880 from:start till:420 text:"420" bar:1888 from:start till:405 text:"405" bar:1900 from:start till:376 text:"376" bar:1910 from:start till:408 text:"408" bar:1920 from:start till:429 text:"429" bar:1930 from:start till:398 text:"398" bar:1941 from:start till:365 text:"365" bar:1950 from:start till:418 text:"418" bar:1960 from:start till:435 text:"435" bar:1970 from:start till:517 text:"517" bar:1980 from:start till:783 text:"783" bar:1990 from:start till:1041 text:"1,041" bar:2000 from:start till:1279 text:"1,279"

Sights

The entire village of Rodersdorf is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

Politics

In the

2007 federal election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not ...

the most popular party was the SP which received 28.42% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.31%), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

(18.51%) and the CVP (15.71%). In the federal election, a total of 605 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 Univ ...

was 63.4%.

Economy

, Rodersdorf had an unemployment rate of 1.3%. , there were 34 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 10 businesses involved in this sector. 34 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 6 businesses in this sector. 69 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 second ...

, with 28 businesses in this sector. There were 647 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.3% of the workforce. the total number of

full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit 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 used to measure a ...

jobs was 105. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 21, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 32 of which 18 or (56.3%) were in manufacturing and 14 (43.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 52. In the tertiary sector; 6 or 11.5% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 4 or 7.7% were in the movement and storage of goods, 10 or 19.2% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 2 or 3.8% were the insurance or financial industry, 8 or 15.4% were technical professionals or scientists, 8 or 15.4% were in education. , there were 115 workers who commuted into the municipality and 525 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.6 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 29.6% of the workforce coming into Rodersdorf are coming from outside Switzerland.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 40% used public transportation to get to work, and 42.2% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 429 or 33.5% 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 let ...

, while 403 or 31.5% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 3 individuals (or about 0.23% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 38 individuals (or about 2.97% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 3 (or about 0.23% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 2 individuals who were

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, 6 individuals who were

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 355 (or about 27.76% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 38 individuals (or about 2.97% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Rodersdorf about 510 or (39.9%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 270 or (21.1%) 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 ...

or a '' Fachhochschule''). Of the 270 who completed tertiary schooling, 58.1% were Swiss men, 30.0% were Swiss women, 9.6% were non-Swiss men and 2.2% were non-Swiss women. During the 2010–2011 school year there were a total of 89 students in the Rodersdorf school system. The

education system The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...

in the Canton of Solothurn allows young children to attend two years 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 ce ...

. During that school year, there were 17 children in kindergarten. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of

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 ...

, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In the municipality there were 72 students in primary school. The secondary school program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. All the lower secondary students from Rodersdorf attend their school in a neighboring municipality.Canton of Solothurn - School statistics
accessed 13 March 2011 , there were 154 students from Rodersdorf who attended schools outside the municipality.

Transportation

Rodersdorf is the terminus of the 10 line of

Baselland Transport Baselland Transport AG (BLT) is a Swiss public transport operator in the cantons of Basel-Land, Basel-Stadt, Solothurn and in France. The BLT was founded in 1974, and is owned by the Canton of Basel-Land, located to the south of the city. It ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Solothurn