Bowil is a municipality

Municipalities of Switzerland

Communes , also known as municipalities, are the smallest government division in Switzerland, numbering 2,596 . While many have a population of a few hundred citizens, the largest cities such as Zürich or Geneva also have the legal status of municipalities...

 in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district

Bern-Mittelland (administrative district)

Bern-Mittelland District in the Canton of Bern was created on 1 January 2010. It is part of the Bern-Mittelland administrative region, and is the only district in the region...

 in the canton

Cantons of Switzerland

The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Bern in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Geography

Bowil has an area, , of 14.68 km² (5.7 sq mi). Of this area, 8.08 km² (3.1 sq mi) or 55.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 5.81 km² (2.2 sq mi) or 39.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.75 km² (0.289576618944401 sq mi) or 5.1% is settled (buildings or roads), 0.06 km² (14.8 acre) or 0.4% is either rivers or lakes.

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 2.9% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.6%. 37.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.6% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 20.3% is used for growing crops and 33.4% is pastures, while 1.3% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is in rivers and streams.

It is located between the Aare River and the Emme River

Emme River

The Emme is a river in Switzerland. It rises in the Alps between the peaks of Hohgant and Augstmatthorn in the canton of Bern. The Emme is 80 kilometers long and flows through the Emmental and into the Aar below Solothurn. The drainage area is 983 km². The average discharge at the mouth is...

. The southern border is the Kurzenberg, while the northern is along the Blasenfluh river. The municipality includes the village of Bowil, Oberhofen, Rünkhofen and Steinen as well as several clusters of houses and individual farm houses.

Demographics

Bowil has a population (as of ) of . , 1.8% of the population was made up of foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 0.2%. Most of the population speaks German (98.4%), with Albanian being second most common ( 0.5%) and English being third ( 0.4%).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the SVP

Swiss People's Party

The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

 which received 57% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SPS

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland

The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 (14.1%), the Green Party

Green Party of Switzerland

The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 (8.1%) and the CSP

Christian Social Party (Switzerland)

The Christian Social Party is a political party in Switzerland. The CSP is more social democratic than the CVP. With the moderate Christian left as its background, the CSP commits itself to social democratic and environmentalist political solutions...

 (7.6%).

The age distribution of the population is children and teenagers (0–19 years old) make up 28.4% of the population, while adults (20–64 years old) make up 57.2% and seniors (over 64 years old) make up 14.4%. The entire Swiss population is generally well educated. In Bowil about 68.2% of the population (between age 25-64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either University or a Fachhochschule

Fachhochschule

A Fachhochschule or University of Applied Sciences is a German type of tertiary education institution, sometimes specialized in certain topical areas . Fachhochschulen were founded in Germany and later adopted by Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Greece...

).

Bowil has an unemployment rate of 0.83%. , there were 178 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 67 businesses involved in this sector. 104 people are employed in the secondary sector and there are 15 businesses in this sector. 126 people are employed in the tertiary sector, with 28 businesses in this sector.
The historical population is given in the following table:

year	population
1764	951
1850	1,588
1870	1,765
1900	1,665
1950	1,514
1980	1,247
2000	1,339