Bäriswil 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

Bern-Mittelland Bern-Mittelland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Bern-Mittelland administrative region, and is the only district in the region. It contains 75 municipalities with an area of and a population () of . ...

in the canton of

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

Bäriswil is first mentioned in 861 as ''Perolteswilare'' when the

Abbey of St. Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot ...

acquired land and farms in Bäriswil. In 1310 it was mentioned as ''Berolswile''.

Hallstatt era The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western and Central European culture of Late Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe (Hallstatt C, Hallstatt D) from the 8th to 6th centuries B ...

grave mounds A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...

have been discovered at Mittelberg and Kriegsholz. Starting in the 14th century, various

ese

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

families owned the village and surrounding lands. In 1720, Hieronymus of Erlach acquired the village and merged it into the ''

Herrschaft The German term ''Herrschaft'' (plural: ''Herrschaften'') covers a broad semantic field and only the context will tell whether it means, "rule", "power", "dominion", "authority", "territory" or "lordship". In its most abstract sense, it refers ...

'' of Hindelbank. The village has remained mostly agricultural. During the 18th century it became slightly industrialized with a pottery factory and a sanding or cutting wheel plant. Starting in the 1960s it developed into a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for the city of

. Today, the economy is dominated by small businesses and commuters.

Geography

2011-04-17 Balonveturo (Foto Dietrich Michael Weidmann) 159

Bäriswil has an area of . Of this area, or 46.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 42.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 12.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and or 0.7% 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 7.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.7%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 34.8% is used for growing crops and 8.4% is pastures, while 3.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. It consists of the village of Bäriswil and several scattered farm houses. 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 Bern-Mittelland.
accessed 4 April 2011

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 vis ...

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 latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

is ''Argent three Pales Gules overall a Bear rampant Sable langued and viriled of the second.'' The bear (german: Bär) makes this an example of

canting arms Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. French heralds used the term (), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial allus ...

Demographics

Bäriswil has a population () of . , 6.0% 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 -2.5%. Migration accounted for -3.1%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.5%.
accessed 27-August-2012 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 ...

(996 or 97.0%) as their first language, French is the second most common (10 or 1.0%) and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

is the third (7 or 0.7%). There are 5 people who speak

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. , the population was 50.4% male and 49.6% female. The population was made up of 467 Swiss men (46.9% of the population) and 34 (3.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 468 Swiss women (47.0%) and 26 (2.6%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality, 241 or about 23.5% were born in Bäriswil and lived there in 2000. There were 472 or 46.0% who were born in the same canton, while 217 or 21.1% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 56 or 5.5% were born outside of Switzerland. , children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 19.2% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 66% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.8%. , there were 424 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 527 married individuals, 34 widows or widowers and 42 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000
accessed 2 February 2011 , there were 67 households that consist of only one person and 28 households with five or more people. , a total of 376 apartments (91.0% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 16 apartments (3.9%) were seasonally occupied and 21 apartments (5.1%) 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 3 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.68%. 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 = top:10 left:100 bottom:50 right:100 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:1100 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:200 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:40 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1764 from:start till:190 text:"190" bar:1850 from:start till:462 text:"462" bar:1860 from:start till:440 text:"440" bar:1870 from:start till:440 text:"440" bar:1880 from:start till:450 text:"450" bar:1888 from:start till:460 text:"460" bar:1900 from:start till:501 text:"501" bar:1910 from:start till:505 text:"505" bar:1920 from:start till:496 text:"496" bar:1930 from:start till:503 text:"503" bar:1941 from:start till:461 text:"461" bar:1950 from:start till:474 text:"474" bar:1960 from:start till:466 text:"466" bar:1970 from:start till:505 text:"505" bar:1980 from:start till:699 text:"699" bar:1990 from:start till:930 text:"930" bar:2000 from:start till:1027 text:"1,027"

Politics

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 29.6% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (21.1%), the

SPS SPS may refer to: Law and government * Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO * NATO Science for Peace and Security * Single Payment Scheme, an EU agricultural subsidy * The Standard Procurement System, fo ...

(16.2%) and 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 ...

(9.2%). In the federal election, a total of 440 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 55.1%.Swiss Federal Statistical Office 2011 Election
accessed 8 May 2012

Economy

, Bäriswil had an unemployment rate of 1%. , there were a total of 152 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 18 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 22 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 8 businesses in this sector. 112 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 18 businesses in this sector. there were a total of 106

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 10, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 20 of which 16 were in manufacturing and 4 were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 76. In the tertiary sector; 12 or 15.8% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 13 or 17.1% were in the movement and storage of goods, 9 or 11.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 2 or 2.6% were technical professionals or scientists, 6 or 7.9% were in education and 29 or 38.2% were in health care. , there were 55 workers who commuted into the municipality and 486 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.8 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 26.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 55.7% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 107 or 10.4% 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 ...

, while 791 or 77.0% belonged to the

Swiss Reformed Church The Protestant Church in Switzerland (PCS), (EKS); french: Église évangélique réformée de Suisse (EERS); it, Chiesa evangelica riformata in Svizzera (CERiS); rm, Baselgia evangelica refurmada da la Svizra (BRRS) formerly named Federation o ...

. Of the rest of the population, there was 1 member of an Orthodox church, there were 4 individuals (or about 0.39% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 51 individuals (or about 4.97% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 4 (or about 0.39% of the population) who were

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic. There were 2 individuals who belonged to another church. 73 (or about 7.11% of the population) belonged to no church, are

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...

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 19 individuals (or about 1.85% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Bäriswil about 473 or (46.1%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 132 or (12.9%) 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 ...

''). Of the 132 who completed tertiary schooling, 74.2% were Swiss men, 19.7% were Swiss women and 3.8% were non-Swiss women. 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 2009-10 school year, there were a total of 68 students attending classes in Bäriswil. There was one kindergarten class with a total of 18 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, and 5.6% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 3 primary classes and 50 students. Of the primary students, 12.0% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 8.0% have a different mother language than the classroom language.Schuljahr 2010/11 pdf document
accessed 4 January 2012 , there were 59 students from Bäriswil who attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bariswil, Bern Municipalities of the canton of Bern