Bettlach (; ) 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 Lebern in the canton of

Solothurn Solothurn ( ; ; ; ; ) 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 Weissenstein Jura mountains. The town is ...

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

Bettlach is first mentioned in 1181 as ''Betelacho''. In 1279 it was mentioned as ''Bettelage'' and in 1329 as ''Betlach''.

Geography

Bettlach has an area, , of . Of this area, or 46.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 37.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 13.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.4% is either rivers or lakes and or 1.2% is unproductive land.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 1.2% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 7.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.4%. Out of the forested land, 35.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 30.9% is used for growing crops and 10.6% is pastures and 4.3% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The municipality is located in the Lebern district. It stretches from the

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

river to the edge of the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( ) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the French–Swiss border. While the Jura range proper (" folded Jura", ) is located in France and Switzerla ...

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 ''Argent a Cross pattee couped fitche Gules.''

Demographics

Bettlach has a population () of . , 15.6% 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 2.8%.
accessed 30-March-2011 Most of the population () speaks

German 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 ...

(4,168 or 88.3%), 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 (153 or 3.2%) and French being third (80 or 1.7%). There are 3 people who speak Romansh. , the gender distribution of the population was 51.0% male and 49.0% female. The population was made up of 2,001 Swiss men (41.5% of the population) and 461 (9.6%) non-Swiss men. There were 1,991 Swiss women (41.3%) and 372 (7.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 1,283 or about 27.2% were born in Bettlach and lived there in 2000. There were 1,488 or 31.5% who were born in the same canton, while 1,100 or 23.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 718 or 15.2% were born outside of Switzerland. In there were 32 live births to Swiss citizens and 2 births to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 33 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 1 while the foreign population increased by 2. There were 4 Swiss men and 3 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 18 non-Swiss men and 6 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 39 and the non-Swiss population decreased by 12 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 -1.1%. The age distribution, , in Bettlach is; 350 children or 7.4% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 746 teenagers or 15.8% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 230 people or 4.9% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 1,503 people or 31.8% are between 25 and 44, and 1,204 people or 25.5% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 529 people or 11.2% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 159 people or 3.4% who are over 80. , there were 1,816 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 2,346 married individuals, 235 widows or widowers and 324 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 1,989 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.3 persons per household. There were 599 households that consist of only one person and 118 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 2,014 households that answered this question, 29.7% were households made up of just one person and there were 12 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 653 married couples without children, 618 married couples with children There were 92 single parents with a child or children. There were 15 households that were made up of unrelated people and 25 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. there were 584 single-family homes (or 63.9% of the total) out of a total of 914 inhabited buildings. There were 212 multi-family buildings (23.2%), along with 94 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (10.3%) and 24 other-use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (2.6%). Of the single-family homes 18 were built before 1919, while 142 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single-family homes (116) 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 2,080 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 643. There were 74 single-room apartments and 632 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 1,946 apartments (93.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 55 apartments (2.6%) were seasonally occupied and 79 apartments (3.8%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.9 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.72%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.8) ImageSize = width:1080 height:210 PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:4800 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:1000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:200 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1666 from:start till:338 text:"338" bar:1798 from:start till:376 text:"376" bar:1850 from:start till:596 text:"596" bar:1860 from:start till:557 text:"557" bar:1870 from:start till:607 text:"607" bar:1880 from:start till:647 text:"647" bar:1888 from:start till:723 text:"723" bar:1900 from:start till:935 text:"935" bar:1910 from:start till:1477 text:"1,477" bar:1920 from:start till:1609 text:"1,609" bar:1930 from:start till:1912 text:"1,912" bar:1941 from:start till:1764 text:"1,764" bar:1950 from:start till:2061 text:"2,061" bar:1960 from:start till:2796 text:"2,796" bar:1970 from:start till:4046 text:"4,046" bar:1980 from:start till:3851 text:"3,851" bar:1990 from:start till:4114 text:"4,114" bar:2000 from:start till:4721 text:"4,721"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 32.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (20.43%), the CVP (20.04%) and the SP (17.22%). In the federal election, a total of 1,526 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 45.4%.

Economy

, Bettlach had an unemployment rate of 3.9%. , there were 53 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 1,557 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 56 businesses in this sector. 579 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 112 businesses in this sector. There were 2,628 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.7% 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 1,992. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 33, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 1,500 of which 1,382 or (92.1%) were in manufacturing and 116 (7.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 459. In the tertiary sector; 116 or 25.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 14 or 3.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 49 or 10.7% were in a hotel or restaurant, 6 or 1.3% were the insurance or financial industry, 85 or 18.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 32 or 7.0% were in education and 83 or 18.1% were in health care. , there were 1,075 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,859 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 13.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 60.5% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 1,980 or 41.9% 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 1,643 or 34.8% 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 70 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.48% of the population), there were 18 individuals (or about 0.38% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 62 individuals (or about 1.31% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 225 (or about 4.77% 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 12 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 ...

, 37 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 3 individuals who belonged to another church. 525 (or about 11.12% 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 ...

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 146 individuals (or about 3.09% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Bettlach about 1,855 or (39.3%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 522 or (11.1%) 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 522 who completed tertiary schooling, 70.1% were Swiss men, 17.8% were Swiss women, 8.4% were non-Swiss men and 3.6% were non-Swiss women. During the 2010-2011 school year there were a total of 462 students in the Bettlach 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 cen ...

. During that school year, there were 82 children in kindergarten. The canton's school system requires students to attend six years of

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, with some of the children attending smaller, specialized classes. In the municipality there were 291 students in primary school and 7 students in the special, smaller classes. The

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

program consists of three lower, obligatory years of schooling, followed by three to five years of optional, advanced schools. 82 lower secondary students attend school in Bettlach.Canton of Solothurn - School statistics
accessed 13 March 2011 , there were 4 students in Bettlach who came from another municipality, while 171 residents attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Solothurn