Gänsbrunnen is a former

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 Thal 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 ...

. The French name for Gänsbrunnen is ''Saint-Joseph''. On 1 January 2021 the former municipalities of Gänsbrunnen and

Welschenrohr Welschenrohr (French: ''Rosières'') is a former municipality in the district of Thal in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021 the former municipalities of Gänsbrunnen and Welschenrohr merged to form the new municipality of ...

merged to form the new municipality of Welschenrohr-Gänsbrunnen. Gänsbrunnen was one of the smallest municipalities in Solothurn.

History

Gänsbrunnen is first mentioned in 1428.

Geography

Gänsbrunnen had an area, , of . Of this area, or 29.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 66.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 3.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.1% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data . Retrieved 25 March 2010 Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 0.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.0%. Out of the forested land, 63.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 3.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.0% is used for growing crops and 14.6% is pastures and 13.7% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. The former municipality is located in the Thal district, south of ancient Balsthal-Moutier road.

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 ''Vert three Geese Argent.''

Demographics

Gänsbrunnen had a population (as of 2019) of 82. , 1.0% of the population are resident foreign nationals.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Superweb database – Gemeinde Statistics 1981-2008
. Retrieved 19 June 2010 Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of -1.1%.
Retrieved 8 April 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 ...

(80 or 95.2%) with the rest speaking

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

, the gender distribution of the population was 48.5% male and 51.5% female. The population was made up of 44 Swiss men (45.4% of the population) and 3 (3.1%) non-Swiss men. There were 48 Swiss women (49.5%) and 2 (2.1%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 25 or about 29.8% were born in Gänsbrunnen and lived there in 2000. There were 23 or 27.4% who were born in the same canton, while 30 or 35.7% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 5 or 6.0% were born outside of Switzerland. In there was 1 live birth to Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 1 while the foreign population remained the same. There was 1 non-Swiss man who immigrated from another country to Switzerland and 1 non-Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland to another country. The total Swiss population change in 2008 (from all sources, including moves across municipal borders) was an increase of 4 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. 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 4.1%. The age distribution, , in Gänsbrunnen is; 5 children or 6.0% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 17 teenagers or 20.2% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 6 people or 7.1% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 25 people or 29.8% are between 25 and 44, and 18 people or 21.4% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 9 people or 10.7% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 4 people or 4.8% who are over 80. , there were 38 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 36 married individuals, 6 widows or widowers and 4 individuals who are divorced.STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 – 2000
. Retrieved 2 February 2011 , there were 31 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.5 persons per household. There were 8 households that consist of only one person and 3 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 33 households that answered this question, 24.2% were households made up of just one person and there were 3 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 8 married couples without children, 10 married couples with children There were 2 single parents with a child or children. there were 12 single family homes (or 36.4% of the total) out of a total of 33 inhabited buildings. There were 1 multi-family buildings (3.0%), along with 14 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (42.4%) and 6 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (18.2%). Of the single family homes 4 were built before 1919, while none were built between 1990 and 2000.Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB – Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 – Gebäude und Wohnungen
. Retrieved 28 January 2011 there were 42 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 4 rooms of which there were 15. There were 1 single room apartments and 15 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 31 apartments (73.8% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 10 apartments (23.8%) were seasonally occupied and 1 apartments (2.4%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 0 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0%. 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:220 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:40 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:8 start:0 PlotData= color:yellowgreen width:40 mark:(line,white) align:center bar:1804 from:start till:126 text:"126" bar:1850 from:start till:176 text:"176" bar:1860 from:start till:176 text:"176" bar:1870 from:start till:153 text:"153" bar:1880 from:start till:170 text:"170" bar:1888 from:start till:180 text:"180" bar:1900 from:start till:153 text:"153" bar:1910 from:start till:214 text:"214" bar:1920 from:start till:200 text:"200" bar:1930 from:start till:188 text:"188" bar:1941 from:start till:163 text:"163" bar:1950 from:start till:193 text:"193" bar:1960 from:start till:176 text:"176" bar:1970 from:start till:114 text:"114" bar:1980 from:start till:108 text:"108" bar:1990 from:start till:107 text:"107" bar:2000 from:start till:84 text:"84"

Politics

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 48.05% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (26.84%), the EVP Party (12.55%) and the CVP (12.12%). In the federal election, a total of 33 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 50.8%.

Economy

, Gänsbrunnen had an unemployment rate of 4.4%. , there were 23 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 8 businesses involved in this sector. 2 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 was 1 business in this sector. 10 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 2 businesses in this sector. There were 51 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 45.1% 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 25. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 17, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 2, both in mining. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 6, all in a hotel or restaurant.Swiss Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB Betriebszählung: Arbeitsstätten nach Gemeinde und NOGA 2008 (Abschnitte), Sektoren 1-3
. Retrieved 28 January 2011 , there were 5 workers who commuted into the municipality and 25 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 5.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering.Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Statweb
. Retrieved 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 21.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 29.4% used a private car.

Religion

From the , 28 or 33.3% 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 32 or 38.1% 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, and there were 12 individuals (or about 14.29% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. 11 (or about 13.10% 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 1 individuals (or about 1.19% of the population) did not answer the question.

Education

In Gänsbrunnen about 37 or (44.0%) of the population have completed non-mandatory

upper secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

, and 6 or (7.1%) 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 6 who completed tertiary schooling, 66.7% were Swiss men, 33.3% were Swiss women. , there were 12 students from Gänsbrunnen who attended schools outside the municipality.

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gansbrunnen Former municipalities of the canton of Solothurn