Oberdorf 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 canton of Nidwalden 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 consists of the villages and

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 Wil, Ennerberg, Waltersberg, Büren nid dem Bach and Niederrickenbach. The

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

convent of Maria-Rickenbach is located within the municipality, next to the hamlet of Niederrickenbach. The convent lies at an altitude of and is accessible by cable car.

History

Oberdorf is first mentioned in 1199 as ''Obirndorf''. In 1275 it was mentioned as ''Oberndorf''.

Geography

Oberdorf has an area, , of . Of this area, 53% is used for agricultural purposes, while 38.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 6.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.9%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). The municipality is located near and above the municipality of Stans. It consists of the villages and

which are located above Stans (the so-called ''Upper village'' or in German ''Obere Dorf''), which include Wil, Ennerberg and Waltersberg. Additionally the hamlets of Büren (nid dem Bach) and Niederrickenbach are included in the municipality.

Demographics

Oberdorf has a population (as of ) of . , 5.6% of the population was made up of foreign nationals.Nidwalden Statistical Office-Population
accessed 4 September 2009 Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 7.6%. Most of the population () speaks German (95.2%), with Albanian being second most common ( 0.8%) and English being third ( 0.7%).
accessed 04-Sep-2009 the gender distribution of the population was 50.3% male and 49.7% female. there are 1,054 households, of which 587 households (or about 55.7%) contain only one or two individuals. 151 or about 14.3% are large households, with at least five members.Nidwalden Statistical Office-Municipalities
accessed 4 September 2009 In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 90.8% of the vote. Most of the rest of the votes went to small right-wing parties (8.6%). In Oberdorf about 70.6% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education 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 ...

''). Oberdorf has an unemployment rate of 1.09%. , there were 214 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 77 businesses involved in this sector. 530 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 35 businesses in this sector. 252 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 40 businesses in this sector. The historical population is given in the following table:

Sights

The main sight of Oberdorf is the pilgrimage chapel ''Niederrickenbach''.

References

{{Authority control Municipalities of Nidwalden