Kerns is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the

canton of Obwalden Canton of Obwalden or Obwald ( ; ; ; ) is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of seven municipalities and the seat of the government and parliament is in Sarnen. It is traditio ...

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

Kerns is first mentioned in 1036 as ''Chernz'' though this mention is from a 14th Century copy of the original document. After 1101 it was normally mentioned as ''Chernes''.

Geography

Kerns has an area, , of . Of this area, 46.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.8% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.5% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (21.9%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The municipality is located on a terrace on the south-west slope of the

Stanserhorn The Stanserhorn is a mountain in Switzerland, located in the canton of Nidwalden near the border with Obwalden, with the peak at above sea level. It is a popular tourist destination, which can be reached from the adjacent town of Stans by a fu ...

and Arvigrat mountains in the ''Sarneraatal'' and ''Melchtal'' valleys. It is the largest municipality in the canton. It consists of the village of Kerns with the sections of Dorf, Siebeneich, Wisserlen, Halten and Dietried, 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 Sankt Niklausen and Melchtal as well as the resort of Melchsee-Frutt.

Demographics

Kerns has a population (as of ) of . , 8.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.Canton Obwalden Statistics
accessed 2 September 2009 Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 7.9%. Most of the population () speaks German (96.2%), with Albanian being second most common ( 1.3%) and Portuguese being third ( 0.5%).
accessed 03-Sep-2009 Picswiss OW-27-33

the gender distribution of the population was 49.8% male and 50.2% female. there are 1,700 households, and there were 2,110 households in Kerns alone, with 15 in St. Niklausen, 180 in Melchtal and 15 in Melchsee-Frutt. In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 38.1% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the CVP (36.6%), the Other (16.9%) and the SPS (8.3%). In Kerns about 67.5% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either 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 ...

or additional higher education (either university 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 ...

''). Kerns has an unemployment rate of 0.85%. , there were 445 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 172 businesses involved in this sector. 644 people are 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 are 65 businesses in this sector. 853 people are 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 136 businesses in this sector. , the religious population distribution was; 4,654 or 83.6% are

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 251 or 4.5% 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 ...

. There are 660 individuals (or about 11.86% of the population) who belong to another church (not listed on the census), or no church.Kerns Municipality website
-Kerns in numbers. accessed 3 September 2009 The historical population is given in the following table:

Sights

The main sights of Kerns are: chapel ''St. Niklausen'', an old bridge (''Hohe Brücke''), and the pilgrimage church ''Melchtal''. The ski area and mountain resort

Melchsee-Frutt Melchsee-Frutt is a mountain resort village in Switzerland. It is located near the lake Melchsee, in the municipality of Kerns, canton Obwalden. Overview The village is located at above sea level and is the heart of the resort. The main att ...

with the lake Melchsee is also part of the municipality of Kerns. The reservoir Tannensee is located above the village, at .

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of Obwalden