Hochwald (
Swiss German
Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...
: ''Hobel'') 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
Dorneck in the
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative divisions
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and entertainment
* Canton (band), an It ...
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 ...
in
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 ...
. Hochwald means "high forest".
History
Hochwald is first mentioned around 1225-26 as ''in villa Honwalt''.
[
]
Geography
Hochwald has an area, , of . Of this area, or 45.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 44.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.9% 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 4.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 3.0%. Out of the forested land, 43.1% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.7% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 23.2% is used for growing crops and 19.4% is pastures, while 3.2% is used for orchards or vine crops.[
The municipality is located in the Dorneck district, on the Gempen plateau. It consists of the ]linear village
In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties:
* linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping'');
* linearity of a ''polynomial''.
An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x)= ...
of Hochwald and the hamlets
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...
of Herrenmatt and Tiefenthal.
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 ''Per pale Gules a Crozier sinister Argent and Argent three Fir Trees issuant from a Base Vert.''
Demographics
Hochwald has a population () of . , 7.8% 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 8.5%.
accessed 23-March-2011German
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 ...
(1,097 or 97.6%), 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 ...
and 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), ...
being the next most common at 6 or 0.5% each.[
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.1% male and 51.9% female. The population was made up of 535 Swiss men (43.1% of the population) and 62 (5.0%) non-Swiss men. There were 589 Swiss women (47.5%) and 54 (4.4%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 353 or about 31.4% were born in Hochwald and lived there in 2000. There were 81 or 7.2% who were born in the same canton, while 523 or 46.5% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 133 or 11.8% were born outside of Switzerland.][
In , there were 8 live births to Swiss citizens and were 5 deaths of Swiss citizens. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens increased by 3 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 2 Swiss men and 1 Swiss woman who emigrated from Switzerland. At the same time, there were 3 non-Swiss men and 5 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 10 and the non-Swiss population increased by 2 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 -0.7%.[
The age distribution, , in Hochwald is; 119 children or 10.6% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 206 teenagers or 18.3% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 37 people or 3.3% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 342 people or 30.4% are between 25 and 44, and 302 people or 26.9% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 89 people or 7.9% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 29 people or 2.6% who are over 80.
, there were 453 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 575 married individuals, 51 widows or widowers and 45 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 427 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.6 persons per household.[ There were 106 households that consist of only one person and 42 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 435 households that answered this question, 24.4% 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 123 married couples without children, 171 married couples with children There were 21 single parents with a child or children. There were 3 households that were made up of unrelated people and 8 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.][
, there were 323 single family homes (or 77.6% of the total) out of a total of 416 inhabited buildings. There were 33 multi-family buildings (7.9%), along with 42 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (10.1%) and 18 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (4.3%). Of the single family homes, 31 were built before 1919, while 93 were built between 1990 and 2000. The greatest number of single family homes (79) were built between 1981 and 1990.][Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
, there were 476 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 142. There were 10 single room apartments and 254 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 405 apartments (85.1% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 60 apartments (12.6%) were seasonally occupied and 11 apartments (2.3%) were empty.[ , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.3 new units per 1,000 residents.][ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.15%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Sights
The entire village of Hochwald is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites
The Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS) is part of a 1981 Ordinance of the Swiss Federal Council implementing the Federal Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage.
Sites of national importance
Types
The types are based on t ...
.
Politics
In the 2007 federal election, the most popular party was the CVP which received 25.63% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (20.65%), the FDP (19.27%), and the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
(16.92%). In the federal election, a total of 502 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 58.1%.
Economy
, Hochwald had an unemployment rate of 2.2%. , there were 53 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 17 businesses involved in this sector. 17 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 5 businesses in this sector. 117 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 30 businesses in this sector.[ There were 566 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 40.5% 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 were 129. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 27, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 16 of which 3 or (18.8%) were in manufacturing and 13 (81.3%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 86. In the tertiary sector; 7 or 8.1% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 17 or 19.8% were in the movement and storage of goods, 8 or 9.3% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 4.7% were in the information industry, 19 or 22.1% were technical professionals or scientists, 6 or 7.0% were in education and 5 or 5.8% were in health care.
, there were 49 workers who commuted into the municipality and 434 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 8.9 workers leaving the municipality for everyone entering.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 15.4% used public transportation to get to work, and 63.3% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 541 or 48.1% 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 253 or 22.5% 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 2 members of an Orthodox church (or about 0.18% of the population), there were 6 individuals (or about 0.53% of the population) who belonged to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 46 individuals (or about 4.09% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 person who was 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 ...
. 242 (or about 21.53% 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 ...
or 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 33 individuals (or about 2.94% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Hochwald, about 441 or (39.2%) 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 175 or (15.6%) 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 175 who completed tertiary schooling, 68.0% were Swiss men, 17.7% were Swiss women, 8.6% were non-Swiss men and 5.7% were non-Swiss women.[
During the 2010-2011 school year, there were a total of 115 students in the Hochwald 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 27 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 88 students in primary school. 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. All the lower secondary students from Hochwald attend their school in a neighboring municipality.Canton of Solothurn - School statistics
accessed 13 March 2011
, there were 106 students from Hochwald who attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Municipalities of the canton of Solothurn