Oberkirch () 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

Sursee Sursee is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Sursee (Amt), Sursee in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Lucerne (canton), Lucerne, Switzerland. Sursee is located at the northern end of Lake Sempach, not far from wh ...

in the canton of

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

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

Oberkirch is first mentioned in 1036 as ''Ecclesia superior'' though this comes from a 14th Century copy of the earlier document. In 1052 it was mentioned as ''Obernkilch''.

Geography

Oberkirch has an area of . Of this area, 74.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 13.4% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 12.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (0.3%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains). , 13.5% of the total land area was forested. Of the agricultural land, 64.98% is used for farming or pastures, while 9.11% is used for orchards or vine crops. Of the settled areas, 6.37% is covered with buildings, 0.99% is industrial, 0.44% is classed as special developments, 0.66% is parks or greenbelts and 3.62% is transportation infrastructure. Of the unproductive areas, and 0.33% is other unproductive land. The municipality is located southwest of

Lake Sempach __NOTOC__ Lake Sempach (German: ''Sempachersee'') is a lake in the canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. Its area is about and its maximum depth is . A island named ''Gamma Insel'' is located east of Sursee. In the 17th century the lake counted wit ...

(''Sempachersee''). It consists of the village of Oberkirch 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 Dogelzwil, Oberhof, Unterhof and Zellhüsli.

Demographics

Oberkirch has a population () of 3,317, of which 10.3% are foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 32.1%. Most of the population () speaks German (92.7%), with Serbo-Croatian being second most common ( 1.6%) and Albanian being third ( 1.4%). In the 2007 election the most popular party was the CVP which received 31.4% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the FDP (28.4%), the SVP (19.7%) 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 ...

(10.4%). The age distribution in Oberkirch is; 855 people or 25% of the population is 0–19 years old. 1,071 people or 31.3% are 20–39 years old, and 1,139 people or 33.3% are 40–64 years old. The senior population distribution is 275 people or 8% are 65–79 years old, 68 or 2% are 80–89 years old and 14 people or 0.4% of the population are 90+ years old.LUSTAT Lucerne Cantonal Statistics
accessed 12 August 2009 In Oberkirch about 76% 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 ...

''). there are 991 households, of which 281 households (or about 28.4%) contain only a single individual. 117 or about 11.8% are large households, with at least five members. there were 469 inhabited buildings in the municipality, of which 375 were built only as housing, and 94 were

mixed use Mixed use is a type of Real estate development, urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple Land use, uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into ...

buildings. There were 255 single family homes, 48 double family homes, and 72 multi-family homes in the municipality. Most homes were either two (196) or three (117) story structures. There were only 29 single story buildings and 33 four or more story buildings. Oberkirch has an unemployment rate of 1.75%. , there were 201 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 59 businesses involved in this sector. 502 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 23 businesses in this sector. 581 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 65 businesses in this sector.Swiss Federal Statistical Office
accessed 24-Aug-2009 55.8% of the population of the municipality were employed in some capacity. At the same time, females made up 43% of the workforce. the religious membership of Oberkirch was; 2,186 (82.1%) were Roman Catholic, and 223 (8.4%) were Protestant, with an additional 60 (2.25%) that were of some other Christian faith. There are 42 individuals (1.58% of the population) who are Muslim. Of the rest; there were 5 (0.19%) individuals who belong to another religion (not listed), 74 (2.78%) who do not belong to any organized religion, 71 (2.67%) who did not answer the question. The historical population is given in the following table:

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of the canton of Lucerne