Kleinlützel () 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
Thierstein 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 ...
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 ...
. It is an
exclave
An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...
of the Canton of Solothurn, enclaved in the Canton of
Basel-Country
Canton of Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country, informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet (; ; ; ; ), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital city is Liestal. It is traditional ...
and
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...
.
History
Kleinlützel is first mentioned in 1194 as ''Luozela''. In 1207 it was mentioned as ''de Minori Luzela'' and in 1288 as ''Kleinen Lützel''.
[
]
Geography
Kleinlützel has an area, , of . Of this area, or 36.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 59.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 4.5% is settled (buildings or roads), or 0.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.1% 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 3.0% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.4%. Out of the forested land, 56.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 10.2% is used for growing crops and 24.7% is pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.[
The municipality is located in the Thierstein district. It is an exclave of the Canton of Solothurn along the Lützeltalstrasse (). It consists of the village of Kleinlützel 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 Ober- and Nieder-Huggerwald and Ring as well as the former nun's convent
A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community.
The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
of Klösterli.
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 ''Or a Fess wavy Azure and in chief a Mullet of Five Gules.''
Demographics
Kleinlützel has a population () of . , 6.7% 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 -0.2%. It has changed at a rate of 2.5% due to migration and at a rate of -1% due to births and deaths.
accessed 13-April-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 ...
(1,154 or 92.8%), 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 (22 or 1.8%) and French being third (12 or 1.0%). There are 2 people who speak Romansh.[
, the gender distribution of the population was 48.8% male and 51.2% female. The population was made up of 559 Swiss men (44.4% of the population) and 55 (4.4%) non-Swiss men. There were 599 Swiss women (47.6%) and 46 (3.7%) non-Swiss women. Of the population in the municipality 675 or about 54.3% were born in Kleinlützel and lived there in 2000. There were 107 or 8.6% who were born in the same canton, while 352 or 28.3% were born somewhere else in Switzerland, and 102 or 8.2% were born outside of Switzerland.][
In there were 12 live births to Swiss citizens and 1 birth to non-Swiss citizens, and in same time span there were 14 deaths of Swiss citizens and 1 non-Swiss citizen death. Ignoring immigration and emigration, the population of Swiss citizens decreased by 2 while the foreign population remained the same. There were 4 Swiss men and 2 Swiss women who immigrated back to Switzerland. At the same time, there were 2 non-Swiss men and 3 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 3 and the non-Swiss population decreased 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 -0.4%.[
The age distribution, , in Kleinlützel is; 105 children or 8.4% of the population are between 0 and 6 years old and 187 teenagers or 15.0% are between 7 and 19. Of the adult population, 55 people or 4.4% of the population are between 20 and 24 years old. 339 people or 27.3% are between 25 and 44, and 332 people or 26.7% are between 45 and 64. The senior population distribution is 178 people or 14.3% of the population are between 65 and 79 years old and there are 47 people or 3.8% who are over 80.
, there were 465 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 658 married individuals, 76 widows or widowers and 44 individuals who are divorced.][STAT-TAB Datenwürfel für Thema 40.3 - 2000]
accessed 2 February 2011
, there were 516 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.4 persons per household.[ There were 139 households that consist of only one person and 37 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 520 households that answered this question, 26.7% were households made up of just one person and there were 4 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 175 married couples without children, 170 married couples with children There were 19 single parents with a child or children. There were 9 households that were made up of unrelated people and 4 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing.][
there were 300 single family homes (or 69.0% of the total) out of a total of 435 inhabited buildings. There were 58 multi-family buildings (13.3%), along with 62 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (14.3%) and 15 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (3.4%). Of the single family homes 56 were built before 1919, while 47 were built between 1990 and 2000.][Federal Statistical Office STAT-TAB - Datenwürfel für Thema 09.2 - Gebäude und Wohnungen]
accessed 28 January 2011
there were 567 apartments in the municipality. The most common apartment size was 5 rooms of which there were 145. There were 10 single room apartments and 234 apartments with five or more rooms. Of these apartments, a total of 504 apartments (88.9% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 30 apartments (5.3%) were seasonally occupied and 33 apartments (5.8%) were empty.[ , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.4 new units per 1000 residents.][ The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 1.33%.][
The historical population is given in the following chart:]
Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 25.35% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (22.85%), the CVP (22.68%) and the SP (16.5%). In the federal election, a total of 450 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 46.5%.
Economy
, Kleinlützel had an unemployment rate of 2.8%. , there were 56 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 25 businesses involved in this sector. 229 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 19 businesses in this sector. 66 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 24 businesses in this sector.[ There were 599 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 37.2% 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 307. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 38, all of which were in agriculture. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 215 of which 175 or (81.4%) were in manufacturing and 40 (18.6%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 54. In the tertiary sector; 11 or 20.4% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 10 or 18.5% were in the movement and storage of goods, 7 or 13.0% were in a hotel or restaurant, 4 or 7.4% were in the information industry, 1 was the insurance or financial industry, 5 or 9.3% were technical professionals or scientists, 11 or 20.4% were in education and 1 was in health care.
, there were 193 workers who commuted into the municipality and 377 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 2.0 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. About 14.5% of the workforce coming into Kleinlützel are coming from outside Switzerland.[Swiss Federal Statistical Office - Statweb]
accessed 24 June 2010 Of the working population, 23.9% used public transportation to get to work, and 46.9% used a private car.[
]
Religion
From the , 913 or 73.5% 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 158 or 12.7% 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 was 1 individual who belongs to the Christian Catholic Church, and there were 9 individuals (or about 0.72% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There were 24 (or about 1.93% 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 2 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 ...
and 2 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 ...
. 129 (or about 10.38% 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 5 individuals (or about 0.40% of the population) did not answer the question.[
]
Education
In Kleinlützel about 503 or (40.5%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 77 or (6.2%) 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 77 who completed tertiary schooling, 71.4% were Swiss men, 20.8% were Swiss women.[
During the 2010–2011 school year there were a total of 137 students in the Kleinlützel 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 24 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 113 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 Kleinlützel attend their school in a neighboring municipality.Canton of Solothurn - School statistics
accessed 13 March 2011
, there were 2 students in Kleinlützel who came from another municipality, while 74 residents attended schools outside the municipality.[
]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleinlutzel
Municipalities of the canton of Solothurn
France–Switzerland border crossings